An extraordinary number of small investors bought fractional shares; the offices of the companies were not prepared for the rush and could not handle the large carry-over, hence for a time the “Kaffir Circus,” as the speculative mania of the day was called, promised to embarrass seriously the whole Exchange machinery. All this could have been avoided by making the shares “to bearer.” Yet the London authorities feel--and not without reason when we consider the volume of their business and the remoteness of their clientele in many instances--that bearer certificates are not safe, and that what is lost in the time spent in transferring certificates is amply compensated in the resultant security against fraud and forgery. It is interesting to note in connection with the enormous business done on the London Exchange--a business which makes New York’s high totals seem insignificant--on what a vast scale London’s exports of capital are conducted. This may properly be noticed here, since these capital exports have great economic significance and bear close relationship to the transactions on the Stock Exchange; indeed were it not for the work done by the Exchange in providing markets and settlements and all the details of the security business, it is fair to say there could be no such public issues of capital. In 1910, for example, new capital expenditures amounted to the extraordinary figure of £267,439,000, of which £60,296,500 was expended in the United Kingdom, £92,378,100 in the various British possessions, and £114,764,500 in foreign countries. Of the grand total £49,974,000 went into foreign railways, £10,096,000 into Indian and Colonial railways, £35,631,600 into Colonial government loans, £18,431,000 into foreign government loans, £18,343,100 into explorations, and £19,143,800 into rubber.[110] The year 1910 was, of course, a year of great prosperity in England, and it was a year made famous by speculative activity in various directions, especially in rubber, so that the totals given above are larger than they had ever been before. But the point for us in America to bear in mind in considering these figures is their immense significance as showing England’s complete supremacy in capital, credit, and the art of banking.