The Royall Exchange of London.

The Royal Exchange was founded in 1565 by Sir Thomas Gresham, whose portrait appears in a roundel hanging from the title cartouche. Based on the Bourse (Exchange) at Antwerp, it was designed by a Flemish master builder, Henri van Paeschen, who employed Flemish workmen and materials. It provided a meeting place for London merchants and foreign traders. In the picture you can see a Dutch merchant with fur hat and padded breeches in the left foreground, and two Turkish merchants in the centre of the front row.

Copies of this print were originally issued in 1644 but this copy was made in 1668, after the Great Fire had gutted the building. In the niches above the arcades are statues of English monarchs from Edward the Confessor to Charles I. The statue of Charles was pulled down during the Civil War.

The artist, Wenceslas Hollar, was born in Prague but settled in London in 1636 and died there in 1677.