It was but a stepping-stone, however. At the beginning of the nineteenth century another subscription was raised amongst the evolutionists, this time to a capital of as much as £20,000; and the Stock Exchange was established with an exclusive membership, and with much the same constitution as exists to-day. The foundation-stone was laid in Capel Court on May 18th, 1801, and under a deed of settlement which had been drawn up, the Stock Exchange, almost as we now know it--although the deed of settlement was subject to modification in 1876 and again in 1882--was soon in full swing. At the commencement there was no definitely formulated code of rules, although the unwritten laws were generally well understood and recognised by the members; it was not until 1812 that a code of rules was actually printed. Some straggling branches of the Stock Exchange profession remained outside for a time, but, in the course of years, they were practically all gathered in. For instance, a great part of the business in foreign stocks was transacted in the Royal Exchange until, in 1823, a Foreign Loan Exchange was established in a building adjoining the Stock Exchange. It had a constitution much the same as that of the Stock Exchange proper, with a Committee and so on, and it was eventually absorbed. Again, much of the business in the Funds was carried on in the Rotunda of the Bank of England from the year 1764, when the Rotunda was built--whilst the Stock Exchange was still in Change Alley--until the year 1838, when the brokers were expelled the Rotunda by the operation of a clause in the Bank Act of 1834. From that time the pre-eminence of the Stock Exchange as the market for the Funds became unrivalled, and there were some who complained that the Government in passing the Act did not, perhaps, realise that it was closing the only semblance of an open market for the transfer of the National Funds. There had been an attempt in 1810 to establish a National Fund Exchange, independent of both the Rotunda and the Stock Exchange, or failing that, to make the Stock Exchange an open market. A Bill was introduced to Parliament, but it never became law. Another attack on the status of the Stock Exchange was made in 1821, this time from inside. The Committee made an attempt to abolish option dealing; it actually forbade it by rule; whereupon many members, finding their occupation gone, subscribed money for the establishment of a rival institution, and the movement obtained such importance that the Committee, to save the situation, climbed down, rescinding its anti-option rule.