So popular was the new investment that on the day on which the books were opened three hundred thousand pounds were subscribed; three hundred thousand more were subscribed during the next forty-eight hours; and, in ten days, to the delight of all the friends of the government, it was announced that the list was full.

The whole sum which the Corporation was bound to lend to the State was paid into the Exchequer before the first instalment was due.

[524] Somers gladly put the Great Seal to a charter framed in conformity with the terms prescribed by Parliament; and the Bank of England commenced its operations in the house of the Company of Grocers.

There, during many years, directors, secretaries and clerks might be seen labouring in different parts of one spacious hall.
The persons employed by the bank were originally only fifty-four.

They are now nine hundred.