Of course, there are many markets one hardly notices in a hurried tour
round the House, but we have glanced at the principal. We have also
noticed here and there the boards upon which quotations are marked and
record is made of the prices at which business is done. We have also
noticed the Waiters' Stands, about twenty in number, placed in various
parts of the House, pulpit-like, or rather rostrum-like, erections, each
with its small sounding-board above, so that the important announcements
which emanate from these stands may be well heard in the House. But we
shall learn more of the uses of these internal features of the Stock
Exchange, marking-boards, waiters' stands, and so on in subsequent
chapters.
Upon this market-place something approaching three quarters of a million
sterling has been spent. It does not belong to the members as such; it
is the property of the proprietors, who, roughly speaking, must be
members of the Stock Exchange. When at the beginning of the nineteenth
century it was decided by the members of the Stock Exchange of that day
to erect a new building, some of the more enterprising of them
subscribed £20,000, and they laid the foundation-stone of the present
edifice, which has been vastly extended since and is still growing. The
share capital is now £260,000 and the debenture capital £500,000. All
new members are now required to hold one or more shares, and only
members are allowed to hold the shares except in the case of these few
proprietors who acquired them before the end of the year 1875, when a
new deed of settlement came into force. These proprietors, their
executors and legatees, may hold the shares although they are not
members, but in other cases where the shares fall into the hands of
those who are not members, or where they are in the hands of one who
ceases to be a member, they must be transferred to a member within
twelve months. Anyone, whether a member or not, may hold the debentures,
which are secured by a floating charge on the whole property, although
they carry no mortgage rights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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