In all these cases the annual subscription, or dues, is the same. These, which were originally 10 guineas, then 20 and 30, are now 40 for all new members, while old members pay, of course, the subscription prevailing at the time of their election. As a condition precedent to election, a candidate must present himself before the committee with his sureties, and each of them must give satisfactory answers to the questions put to him. From this it will be seen that a man who wants to become a member of the London Stock Exchange without first serving an apprenticeship of four years as clerk must pay for his entrance fee 500 guineas, his shares £570, his nomination £40, and his annual dues 40 guineas, or a total of about £1150, of which £570, the price of his shares, yields him a return in Stock Exchange dividends. These shares are, of course, excellent investments, and the managers may be relied upon to see to it that their value is not impaired. During the first seventy-five years of its existence Stock Exchange shares paid an average dividend of 20 per cent.; for the last completed year the dividend was 100 per cent. No one person may hold more than 200 shares, and holders must be members of the Exchange in all cases except those where representatives of proprietors acquired their shares before December 31, 1875. When a proprietor dies, his shares must be sold to a member within twelve months. The membership is not limited, strictly speaking, and whereas in 1802 there were 500 members, in 1845 there were 800, in 1877, 2000, and in 1910, 5019. I say the membership is not limited, but when the time arrives, as it probably will within this generation, that the 20,000 shares are divided at the ratio of three shares for each member, 6666 members will then own all the shares and the membership will be full. Hence there is, in a way, a limit to the total membership.