Pay on the nail
In Bristol, the "nails" are four bronze pillar-tables outside the Exchange on Corn Street where merchants once settled deals, and the city claims them as the origin of the phrase "to pay on the nail", meaning to pay at once. The oldest of them date from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
In practice
Merchants placed their money and goods on the flat tops of the nails to complete transactions in public. The Exchange behind them was built in the eighteenth century and is now home to independent food traders as part of St Nicholas Market. Language historians note that the phrase "on the nail" is also recorded elsewhere and its origin is uncertain, but Bristol's nails are the best-known physical example and a proud part of the old city's story.
Why it matters to newcomers
The nails stand in the heart of the Old City, among banks, bars and the covered St Nicholas Market, one of the city's best places for lunch. They are a good start to a walk through Bristol's merchant history - which also includes its central role in the transatlantic slave trade, now addressed in the city's museums.
Related
- Harbourside - the docks that made the merchants rich
- SS Great Britain - Bristol's maritime history
- Bristolian - the city's people
Source: Bristol City Council.