But 1895 was a bad year for the banking companies, and, from a dividend point of view, 1896 was little better, for the Bank rate did not touch two-and-a-half per cent. until September of that year. The short loan market, therefore, was not a tempting place into which to pour surplus deposits, so the banks apparently thought better of their decision (if it were a decision), and continued their loans to the Stock Exchange on the same liberal scale, because such loans yielded a much better return than those to the bill brokers. The very rumour that the banks intended increasing their margin on, say, American Rails, would cause those securities to fall, and were the threat actually executed, then, unless strong support came either from the public or from New York, the result would be failures of weak jobbers in that particular market, and a heavy fall in the prices of American Railway securities. There is the same link between the other markets of the Stock Exchange and the banks, and, such being the case, it naturally follows that the prices of securities are influenced by the abundance or scarcity of loanable capital, and that, therefore, continuation rates fluctuate with the Bank rate. But a very considerable proportion of the transactions conducted on the Stock Exchange is of a speculative or gambling nature, in which those mysterious persons called "bulls" and "bears" figure largely, and whose object it is, not to invest savings in particular stocks and shares, but to receive a cheque from their broker representing differences due to them on the rise or fall of the securities in which they are temporarily interested. The "bull" buys stock because he believes that it will rise, and that he will be able to sell it at a profit before the fortnightly settlement comes round, but he does not pay for it; and if his sanguine anticipation is not realised, so human and hopeful is he, that he endeavours to obtain a loan on his stock through his broker in order to carry it over to the next settlement, trusting that he will be able to sell at a profit before contango day again comes round. The broker sometimes obtains an advance on the stock through his banker, and so is enabled to accommodate his client, whom he charges both interest and commission. Again, the broker may carry over the stock through a jobber or with a money broker who is a member of the "House," as the Stock Exchange is colloquially called.