Sometimes amongst the wares of the market there are actually found stocks and shares which do not exist. A big Government loan is known to be impending, and although no prospectus has been issued and the market knows nothing about the terms, dealers, confident that these terms will be reasonable, and sure that there will be a big public demand for the stock, offer to sell it or to buy it at a fraction over the issue price, although they do not know what that issue price will be. Transactions of this kind sometimes occur not only in the case of a big Government loan but in the case of the flotation of an important company. After the prospectus appears, and the applications for allotment of the stock have been sent in, the dealings become quite general, although no one is yet in possession of the stock which he sells, nor do even the applicants know whether they will get the whole of the amount for which they applied, a part of it, or none at all. Some are tempted by the premium to sell the full amount for which they have applied, in the hope that they may get all of it, or, at all events, that they will get some and be able to buy the balance in the market. Others more cautious can often arrange to sell at a lower premium whatever amount of stock they may be allotted. These, of course, are on surer ground, and so are those who deal in the allotment letters themselves when they actually come out. The practice of dealing in shares before allotment has from time to time for very many years past been the subject of much criticism, and the Stock Exchange Committee has frequently been called upon to put a stop to it. It has even now and again made attempts so to do, but these attempts have proved futile, and the penalisation has often fallen upon the less guilty of the two parties to the bargain, to the advantage of the one who has turned round and said, "If I complete the transaction, it will mean loss to me, and I shall not do so, and you cannot compel me to do so, because you have broken the rules of your Committee in dealing before allotment at all." Thus after several attempts the Committee seems to have given up all effort to restrain dealings before allotment, except by adopting a negative attitude, to the discouragement but not the penalisation of such dealings. Dealings take place not only in stocks and shares before allotment and in the letters of allotment, but also in what is called scrip, which is a provisional certificate issued some time after the letter of allotment and endorsed with a receipt for the payment of each instalment on the stock. It is a kind of temporary stock certificate issued in advance of the real one, which is forthcoming when the stock is fully paid up. CHAPTER XI FAILURES