The Exchange
Historical Overview
Founding
The House Swann-run Merchants' & Traders' Trust was, in the late Age of Rule, evolving out of their original insurance-focused business and into a bank and currency exchange. As the Promenade grew in economic power, its position as a major transport hub began attracting merchants with interests other than the whaling industry. For them, M&T Trust provided crucial services, from weights and measures, to storing currency, and keeping up on exchange rates. As these merchants began to congregate at the Trust headquarters in the Banksdale, conversation on businesses naturally sprang up. Concurrent with this, the power of the Trust was growing, and they moved to a new facility in the center of the Landside. With this new facility, the Trust and House Swann leaned into the financial insight being generated by the merchants, and began entering the commodity trade. The Trust and House Swann partnered with an innovative young Litoric Islander, by the name of Girolamo Pisano, with family connections to Calettina. A young clerk from the Banksdale, he brought Islander culture to the Trust, and approached the leadership with an adaptation of the concept of Plankholders. In the Islands, a plankholding family is both one of the founders of the unified nation, and those first sailors who own a "plank" on a ship by being part of the inaugural crew. Pisano had the idea of creating company plankholders, individuals who could purchase a starter portion of a company, to help it get off the ground. These planks could be sold for, hopefully, a profit at the Exchange or held for a portion of the company's income over time. House Swann ran with this idea, and put Pisano in charge of the new Exchange building.Evolution
"Those with whom I spoke before taking the ship from Meridia to The Promenade seemed to be under the impression the merchants at the Exchange were Cothrum himself. Never have I heard more pompous words with less actual meaning than here." - Isobard Quickquill, Decadence of the Upper HalfThe Exchange was an innovative concept in Anhara at the time, and put House Swann on the map nationally. Their proximity to a diverse cast of merchants from across Anhara, the Litoric Islands, whaling companies, and even al-Tahat brought a slew of currencies, products and skills to the city and the Exchange. The Exchange Center, the new name of the neighborhood around the Exchange building, became a hub not only for merchants, but for the city government as well. Despite Girolamo Pisano's best efforts to keep gangs away from the Exchange, the proximity to the levers of power drew in criminal and black market groups to the neighborhood. Even with that in mind, the Exchange today is one of the few places in the Promenade dominated by an international merchant class, rather than local gangs.
Architecture
As a Litoric Islander, Girolamo Pisano brought some architectural influence from his homeland to the Promenade. Straddling a wide canal across the peninsula of the Exchange Center, products flow directly through the middle of the structure. The exterior blends the already Anharan-Litoric hybrid architecture of Calettina with the clean marbled style of the Coquet Heights. The northern half of the structure contains the business-focused denizens of the Exchange. Here money is changed, prices are posted, planks are traded, and merchants gossip. The first floor features secure storage for goods being traded, as well as bank tellers and exchanges for various types of currency. The second floor is filled with lounges and restaurants for the enjoyment of visiting merchants, and even a small library of informative books to aid those planning commercial enterprises. Most floors above those are full of various rooms for visitors needing accommodation immediately adjacent to the Exchange."We passed under the scales of Cothrum, suspended above the canal just at the entrance of the building, by an ostentatious golden statue of the god of commerce" - Isobard Quickquill, Decadence of the Upper HalfIn the center of the Exchange is the Exchange Floor. Located around the canal, the Floor is covered by a massive bridge connecting both halves of the building together. Stored in that bridge are many of the items shipped along the canal for sale in the Exchange, winched up to that level from the canal below. Dotted around the canal, on the Floor itself, are a jumble of stalls, weights and measures, tax assessors, and the assorted hangers-on necessary to commerce.
"13 planks were sold for a profit of 145% in the Deepquest Northern Transport Company, due to the new Prominere report on population in Owin's Station" - Plank Posting in the ExchangeThe southern half of the structure contains the bureaucratic portion of the Exchange. Here are the offices of the advisors to the city council and mayor, prominent guardsmen and officials, and those bureaucrats below the level of nobility that allows them residence on the Rise and Mistfall districts. Here the mechanics of the Exchange are managed, and the complex record-keeping and communications necessary for the trading of planks are held.
Founding Date
600AR
Type
Bank / Treasury
Parent Location
Owning Organization
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