The Stock Exchange

The text describes the fixed fortnightly settlement, which it says means that all sellers of stock agree to deliver on the same day, upon which the buyers are prepared to take it up and pay for it. The text says bargains in the scrip and securities of a new loan or company are consummated at what is called the special settlement.

The text says the Stock Exchange Committee appoints the special Settling day on the application of members interested in bringing about a completion of the bargains, and requires certain documents showing that the company has been incorporated. The text calls the aristocracy of the profession who assembled at Jonathan's really the nucleus of the present Stock Exchange organisation, and says they eventually, in 1773, raised a subscription and obtained the control of a coffee-house. The text says an inscription, The Stock Exchange, was placed over the door of a building that was the first to bear the title.