عنوان

The London Stock Exchange, 1870-1914 :

Number

TLets295464

Title Proper

The London Stock Exchange, 1870-1914 :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Kynaston, David Thomas Anthony.

Title Proper by Another Author

an institutional history.

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

1983

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)

Text preceding or following the note

1983

Text of Note

A general survey of the late-Victorian and EdwardianLondon Stock Exchange suggests that in several significantinstitutional senses it was probably unsatisfactory as afinancial intermediary: its constitution was cumbersome;its communications system was backward; its ruling bodieswere out-of-touch with the markets; and, in the context ofgenerally lax entrance qualifications, there were far toomany members of little capital and still less expertise.Moreover, the Stock Exchange seems to have been particularlyunsatisfactory when it came to servicing the capital needsof home industries. Especially significant in this respectwas the almost complete failure of either the Stock ExchangeCommittee or the company brokers to offer an effectivesupervisory obstacle to unscrupulous company promoters.Moreover, on the cost side, the Stock Exchange was anexpensive place to float a new issue; while in terms ofdealing in established home industrial securities, theprovincial stock exchanges were cheaper than London's jobbers.Nor did these jobbers really justify themselves by offeringgenuine marketability: very few home industrials werereadily dealt in on the London Stock Exchange. While as faras the brokers of the institution were concerned, there isno evidence to suggest that they offered any form ofdiscriminating, disinterested guide as to which homeindustrials were worth backing and which leaving alone. Insum, it is impossible to escape the impression that theStock Exchange of this period played to the full its part inmaintaining the well-known gulf in British history betweenthe City and industry. Hermetic, unmeritocratic, andshrouded in a pervasive cloak of rumour and uncertainty,with an eye always on the most immediate future, its verytexture, as well as its functional deficiencies, condemnedit to an existence remote from larger and longer-termeconomic realities.

History

Kynaston, David Thomas Anthony.

London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y