The City of London or "Square Mile" is the largest financial center in London, with many banks, insurance companies and financial institutions. About half of the UK 100 top enterprises, and more than 100 top 500 European enterprises are headquartered in London. About 3 1% of global currency business is traded in London. The London Stock Exchange is one of the most important securities trading centers in the world.
London Port is also the largest port in Britain, with an annual throughput of about 50 million tons.
There are more than 500 banks (as high as 199 1) in the City of London, ranking first among the world's big cities, including 470 foreign banks, and the total capital of London exceeds10 billion pounds. The City of London has an annual foreign exchange transaction volume of about 3 trillion pounds, making it the largest international foreign exchange market in the world. London is also the largest eurodollar market in the world, and the oil revenue turnover of oil exporting countries can sometimes reach more than $50 billion a day, accounting for more than 1/3 of the global European dollar turnover. The Bank of England, the British Central Bank, the 13 clearing bank and more than 60 commercial banks are also located here. The most famous clearing banks are Barclays Bank, Lloyd's Bank, Midland Bank and National Westminster Bank.
London is the largest international insurance center in the world, with more than 800 insurance companies, of which 170 are branches of foreign insurance companies. In the insurance industry in London, Lloyd's Insurance Company has a long history, abundant funds and the highest reputation.
The London Stock Exchange in London is one of the four largest stock exchanges in the world. In addition, there are many commodity exchanges in London that trade precious or bulk world commodities, such as gold, silver, non-ferrous metals, wool, rubber, coffee, cocoa, cotton, oil, wood, sugar, tea and antiques.
Birmingham is located in the northwest of London183km, with an area of 266km2 and a population of103000. Birmingham is a major producer of coal and iron in Britain and became an important commercial city in the 12 century. /kloc-in the 8th century, the British engineer james watt invented the steam engine here, which triggered the British industrial revolution. In the 20th century, Birmingham's light industry and automobile manufacturing industry replaced the metal industry and became an important industrial city of machinery, plastics, chemicals, glass, rubber, gold, silver and jewelry in Britain. Birmingham has many famous ancient buildings. The Central Museum and art exhibitions have works and sculptures by famous artists.