Just for a little time I must leave my personal history to inquire how England managed to do without me so long, and what the circumstances were which at length rendered my existence imperative. In the days following the Norman Conquest, the Jews, whose one pursuit in life was the commerce of money, were the compulsory bankers of the country. They were subject to much cruelty and persecution, as you may see for yourselves in your histories of the Kings of England. It is not to be denied that their demands for interest on money lent by them were most extravagant. In 1264 the rate of interest exceeded 40 per cent., and I believe that 500 Jews were slain by our London citizens because one of them would have forced a Christian to pay more than twopence for the usury of 20s.[1] for one week, which sum they were allowed by the king to take from the Oxford students. They were ill-treated and robbed from the time they came over with the Conqueror until the reign of Edward I., who distinguished himself by robbing 15,000 Jews of their wealth, and then banishing the whole of them from the kingdom; and thus, as much sinned against as sinning, the compulsory bankers of the period departed. There was no time to feel their loss, for immediately after their expulsion the Lombards (Longobards), or merchants of Genoa, Florence, Lucca and Venice, came over to England and established themselves in the street which still bears their name. There was no doubt as to their purpose, for it was a well-known fact that in whatever country or town they settled they engrossed its trade and became masters of its cash, and certainly they did not intend to make an exception in favour of London. I am not going to deny that they introduced into our midst many of the arts and skill of trade with which we in England were previously unacquainted; and it is to these Lombards or goldsmiths we owe the introduction of bills of exchange, a wonderful invention, and one which has served to connect the whole world into one, as you will see when the proper place arrives for their explanation. These Lombards, immediately after their arrival in London, may have been seen regularly twice a day parading Lombard-street with their wares, exposing for sale the most attractive articles; and in a short time became so successful that they were able to take shops in which to carry on their business as goldsmiths.