Hello again and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope, hello Anlan.
Hello everybody.
Last two episodes we talked about money and attitudes towards money. To be honest, when you think of money and you think of London, London is one of, still, one of the major financial centers of the world.
Yep. But you're actually thinking of a particular part of London, what we call the City of London.
The City of London.
The city.
How is that different from London city, like 伦敦城 和 city of London, 不一样的吗？
Completely different, the City of London is actually the oldest part of London, so this is the original London that the Romans founded.
Is that where the banks are?
That is where most of the financial institutions are, and it's only in a very small area, it's actually, another name for it is the Square Mile.
The Square Mile, this I have heard, 1平方英里。Actually I think in Chinese which is called 伦敦金融城. That's why I thought it was financial center. But it's not; it's the City of London.
Yeah.
So next time if you hear the expression the City of London, it means this oldest part, that is the financial center of London, also called the Square Mile.
Yeah and it's actually separate from most of London. So for example you know when you're entering the City of London because there are dragons at the entrance.
Wow! Dragons, like Chinese dragons? I assume not.
No no, kind of western style dragons, but you'll see little statues of them by the main roads and when you go past them, that's when you know you've gone passed into the City of London.
So that's the border.
Yep that's where the wall used to be, the old London wall.
So a square mile, that's not very large area. Exactly how many people actually live there? Because if I remember correctly, most of that area is filled with banks.
Yeah, there are only six thousand residents of the City of London.
Six thousand.
Yeah, but guess how many people actually work there?
Um, I don’t know, like sixty thousand?
About 320,000.
Wow, so 6,000 live there, 320,000 actually work there.
Yeah, if you go there over the weekend, it's completely deserted.
Because nobody really go there on the weekend, ah~ I guess, apart from probably people doing overtime. This is something very interesting that I've noticed. You know most of the countries, most of the big cities, the bars, the restaurants, they're usually the busiest on Saturday night or Friday night. But within the City of London, the busiest night is Thursday night.
Yeah. That's because most people on Friday night they wanna get back home or Saturday night they don't want to go back to where they work.
Because they probably live all the way out of town.
But there's actually quite a few very famous pubs and very famous bars in the area. So we could probably talk about that in another episode.
Exactly! Well, it is the oldest part of London. So giving the topic back to finance, to money, in British English, you do say like city boys, especially in London, if you say city boys, it means men, especially young men who work in the city, in the City of London; they are financial experts that make lots of money.
Yeah. If you say city boy, then you're thinking of someone who wears expensive suits, who drives expensive cars...
Drink champagne.
Drink champagne, normally a little bit arrogant, normally let's say, quite young, they are bankers.
They're bankers 伦敦金融业的金融精英男，city boys. So exactly how much money is traded every day? Give us a scale.
Oh, it's actually quite difficult to give an exact figure. So for example the City of London is quite famous for foreign exchange and every single day, 2.7 trillion dollars are traded.
2.7 trillion dollars. Wow! Trillion is 万亿.
Yes.
Every day?
Every day!
I suppose all the major banks are there.
Oh yeah, most major banks have their headquarters there or at least a very big office in the City of London.
And it is also the base of London stock exchange. 伦敦证交所。But is it the whole idea of old money, like if you were born into money, then you just become a city boy or work in the city?
Well traditionally no, uh because the whole idea of the City of London is that you can strike it rich or you can become rich through your own efforts.
Wow!
Because if you think about it, if they are old money, if they are landed aristocracy then they wouldn't be seen in the City of London. They already have the money.
They wouldn't have to work. Sure. Are there any stories related to this?
Well, the most famous one that pretty much every British person knows is a story of Dick Whittington.
I have to say I never heard of that.
Well, it's basically, it's a quite a long story, but it's a story of a young man who came to London to make his fortune. There was the idea that he had the streets paved with gold.

A lot of stories are like that, the streets are paved with gold. So it's chasing the riches.
So originally he was a very poor orphan, and he became a servant for a rich merchant. And unfortunately when he was a servant he was mistreated by the cook and was so depressed that he tried to run away. But just as he was leaving London, the bells of London called him back, saying come back, come back. And the only thing he actually had at that time was his cat. So the story is that he sold his cat to the king of a faraway country that was filled with rats. The king was so happy with not having this country filled with rats that Dick Whittington became very, very rich and became Lord Mayor three times.
So it's a typical rags to riches.
But the hilarious thing is that Dick Whittington was actually a real person; the story is not real, but there was a very famous Lord Mayor called Richard Whittington.
So they probably just invented a background story.
And every single year around Christmas time the story of Dick Whittington is a quite popular pantomime.
Ah so it's one of those very popular folk tales essentially. So by the way, City of London is quite independent part of London. Exactly how independent?
It's a very different structure of government. So for example, we talked about the Lord Mayor, so the Lord Mayor is chosen every year around November.
Hang on a minute. Lord Mayor, mayor is 市长, isn't that just mayor of London?
No, the mayor of London is someone different. So the mayor of London is in control at the whole of London, the whole of greater London; the Lord Mayor is only in charge of the City of London.
Okay, that's very interesting. So they have very separate set of governing style or system.
That's because the system of government has changed a little since medieval times. There have been Lord Mayors of London for around seven hundred, eight hundred years without a stop.
So is this Lord Mayor chosen every year is different?
Every year is different, and in November you have the Lord Mayor show, and that's when the Lord Mayor is chosen and then he parades through the City of London.
All right.
But they are also quite independent as well. So for example based on ancient privileges and ancient tradition, the queen, if she wants to enter the City of London, she has to be greeted by the Lord Mayor at the border who gives her a sword to show that she is now in control of the City of London.
Oh essentially the queen, even the queen, needs to ask for Lord Mayor's permission to enter the City of London.
Yeah, because if she enters the City of London without permission, that's almost an act of war; that's almost an act of aggression.
Wow, it does sound very independent. Okay. So you have Lord Mayor, you have all these financial institutions like banks. What else?
Well, then you have what we call the livery companies or the guilds.
I've only seen the word guilds in history or in, for example, in games.
So the guilds originally they were designed so that tradesmen could protect their industry or protect their livelihood by clubbing together and they could work together. We still have guilds, we still have livery companies and they are involved in the quality of an industry, but a lot of it is ceremonial now and the guilds actually still make up the government of the City of London.
But it's like you said, it's more ceremonial, it's more probably symbolic.
More so now, but the guilds do have a lot of influence in each other's industry and it's a good marker of excellence or quality if you belong to a guild.
OK. So we have Lord Mayor, we have the guilds or livery companies. What about the traders, the merchants?
Well you still have what we call the freedman or freeman.
Freeman. Is it about freedom? Is it just 自由人?
No not quite, it actually means someone who can trade within the city.
Oh, it's like a licensed trader. Do you still have that now?
Yeah, we still do, but it's an honor more than an actual physical license for trading. So for example if you're a famous person, then you are given the freedom to the City of London.
Like the honorary title of freeman of the City of London. 荣誉市民
But the thing is there are some traditions that still exist. So the tradition allows freeman to drive their sheep across London Bridge.
You can tell that this is very very old fashioned, this was in the past. So basically traders, they had their sheep and then they can drive their flock across the bridge.
Yeah, without having to pay.
So that's kind of a toll free.
Yeah, and sometimes they still do this, but for charity.
Just it's all symbolic ceremonial now.
But the City of London, same with many of our traditions, many of our traditions do come from medieval times and it's just the fact that no one's ever really change them.
Yeah, it's very nice to know that people still keep that sort of tradition even just in a ceremonial way. By the way, I can tell that you still have a lot of other stories to tell about the City of London. I bet there are many different institutions.
Well, in our next episode we can talk a little bit about the famous institutions in the City of London, so for example the Bank of England, Lawyers of London and some others as well.
Sounds very interesting, can't wait. So if you have ever been to the City of London, if you work in the finance industry, if you have anything to share or anything you want to ask, feel free to leave us a comment in the comment section. We would really love to read your comments.
So look forward to seeing all your questions in the comment section.
We'll see you next time.
Bye.
Bye.

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