This report of the Commission was by no means unanimously approved by the dozen Commissioners, of whom four signed it with stated reservations. One principal point of objection was the proposal to legislate against dealings before allotment, which it was contended would stop a vast amount of legitimate business because a few exceptional cases of abuse had arisen. Another principal objection was to the proposal to appoint a public functionary to supervise quotations in the Official List, it being contended that no functionary would be equal to the task of saying what were sound securities, and that the Stock Exchange Committee made no attempt so to do in granting a quotation. Another objection was to the proposal that the Stock Exchange should be incorporated, it being contended that the Stock Exchange had flourished, and had performed its functions as a voluntary association in a manner which had commanded the entire confidence of the public. It will be observed that the reservations rather than the report itself have prevailed. CHAPTER XIV A SKETCH HISTORY Having seen what the Stock Exchange is, the work it does, and how it does it, and having considered the criticism and commentary of the Royal Commission on these points, we may with interest take a glance over the history of the Stock Exchange. For one thing, a brief sketch will indicate how the great institution has been evolved. The first Stock Exchange was in the Royal Exchange. When the National Debt was organised by William III. at the end of the seventeenth century, in such a way as to render dealing in Government securities possible--there were few other securities in which to deal--business immediately began to be transacted, and as the Royal Exchange was the place of public business resort, it was there that men met to exchange stocks, and there that the profession of stockbrokers was established. There was no organisation except such as arose from the fact that every broker, whether in merchandise or stocks, had to be licensed by the authorities of the City of London. The stockbroker was so licensed, and formed one of the groups of brokers in the Royal Exchange. There were some who regarded the new profession and its methods with little favour, and as early as 1697 an Act of Parliament was passed to regulate stockjobbing--there was no distinction between stockjobbing and stockbroking in those days. Even the mercantile brokers of the Royal Exchange objected to the new group in their midst, very noisy and rapidly growing; they even questioned its respectability, and, as a result of all this, in the year 1698 there was a great exodus of stockbrokers from the Royal Exchange.