If a client gives, say, an order to buy “at the average price” (_cours moyen_), the transaction takes place in this way: Before the opening of the session the stockbrokers and their clerks meet in a special room, where bids and offers are made “at the average price,” which is as yet undetermined; it will be decided during the session. When an offer and a bid coincide, the transaction is closed; only the price is missing. When the bell rings to announce the opening of the market, the brokers and their clerks leave the special room and proceed to the public hall around the railed enclosure (_corbeille_) whereupon the day’s business begins. As orders are executed the dealer gives the price to a marker, whose entries establish the prices for the official quotation list, and, when this has been made up, those who have traded on the basis of “the average price” ascertain it by striking a mean between the high and low level. If only one price is quoted, that, of course, takes the place of the average price. If orders are given at fixed prices, or “at the market,” they are executed as elsewhere. It is important to note in this connection, that the market in Paris enjoys an intimate connection with many banks and credit institutions that act as intermediates in procuring business. Orders transmitted to the Bourse by the Bank of France in 1908, for account of its clients, amounted to 98,721, involving 500,000,000 francs capital. While, as we have seen, stockbrokers alone have the right to deal in government and other listed securities, there are very many securities dealt in, in Paris, that have not been admitted to the Official List, either because the stockbrokers did not care to adopt them or because the securities did not fulfill the very rigorous statutory conditions. These may, however, be dealt in outside the Bourse, and the law recognizes and protects such transactions. In what I have written heretofore, I have confined myself to the operations of the parquet, meaning the stockbrokers market, and so called because of the parquet floor on which they stand; we come now to the dealings on the coulisse, or curb, named from the narrow passageway, la coulisse, in which these curb brokers congregate. This market is called “the banker’s market” (_marche en banque_), but for our purpose we may call these dealers curb brokers, as distinguished from the stockbrokers of the parquet.[123] The number of curb brokers is not limited; any one may become a coulissier if he is a French subject. He must have a capital of 100,000 francs in order to do business in the cash market for rentes, and of 500,000 francs for the settlement market. The curb is governed, as is the parquet, by two _chambres syndicale_, one for the account, and one for the cash market.