The exchange here is in the same style of architecture as that of Rotterdam, but larger. My astonishment here was even greater than what I experienced at the latter place; for, at the exchange hour, it was overflowing with merchants, brokers, agents, and all the busy motley characters who belong to commerce. From the prevailing activity, the appetite for accumulation here appeared to have experienced no checks from the inevitable calamities of war. My surprise was augmented by reflecting, with these appearances before me, upon the present and former commercial condition of the country. The principal causes which contributed to render Amsterdam so rich before the two last wars, were the invincible industry, the caution, and frugality of the people. The ancient merchants of Amsterdam preferred small gains with little risk, to less probable, and to larger profits: it was their creed, that more fortunes were raised by saving and economy, with moderate advantages, than by bold, expensive, and perilous speculations. This golden rule they transmitted to their posterity, who have exhibited no great disposition to deviate from it. A Dutch merchant of the present day almost always calculates the chances for and against his success in any undertaking, which he will immediately relinquish unless they are very greatly in his favour, and as nearly reducible to certainty as possible: he very rarely over-trades himself, or extends his schemes beyond his capital: such was the foundation upon which the commerce of Amsterdam was raised.