Поставить 5 видов разных вопросов The World's Major Financial Centre.
The financial heart of England is the City. It is a square mile in London on the bank of the Thames. In the centre there is the Bank of England, and the head offices and foreign departments of other English banks.
It is the home of commodity, financial, and insurance markets that are concentrated in the narrow streets, which form the financial core (cepцевина) of the City.
The position that the City holds is due in no small measure to the integrity of its members. The City is jealous of its honour, punctilious in fulfilling its obligations and, where deals of thousands of pounds are made merely by a word, is proud to make its word its bond (зобов’язання).
The population of the City is almost entirely a daytime one. Each morning about half a million people come in from north, south, east and west, and then as evening comes and business finishes they hurry home by train, bus, car or underground. Prior to 1914 this population was almost completely the male one, with top hat, black tail coat, black and white striped trousers, stiff (накрохмалений) fronted shirt and stiff white collar. Two wars have changed all that. There are probably as many women employed in the City as there are men these days.
From the earliest times the City has been ruled by its own elected Lord Mayor
Aldermen, and to this day the king or queen of England may not pass the bounds of the City until he or she has had permission of Lord Mayor, and then he or she comes only as a guest.
Generally speaking, the City performs four financial functions:
a) the City gathers in the country's savings and provides channels and machinery for their investment;
b) it provides a safe, speedy and convenient means of payment without the actual use of banknotes or coins;
c) through the medium of Foreign Exchange Market it makes it possible to exchange one currency for another;
d) it provides the organization to finance, transport and insure foodstuffs, manufactures and raw materials on their way from producer to consumer.
