One of the reasons why speculation in high-class securities has more or less ceased is obviously because Consols and such like stocks are more firmly held than they used to be when the country was oftener engaged in wars, or disturbed by semi-revolutionary agitations. Then again, the very fact of high-class stocks remaining at a uniformly high level of price, causes a certain class of investors to buy them for simply absolute security’s sake. There are numbers of people who hold Consols because they are perfectly certain their £3 odd per cent. per annum will always be paid. They never trouble themselves about the price of the stock, and continue entirely apathetic whether the price rises to 120 or falls to 50. It stands to reason that, as the country grows in wealth, so do the holders of these high-class stocks increase in number, and as such securities are purchased largely for permanent holding, and purely as a means of providing income, so is steadiness imparted to the price, which tends consequently to be less and less disturbed in the absence of exceptionally adverse influences. There are always large numbers of persons in a country like England who are retiring from active life to live on an income, derived through the medium of public securities of one form or another, which is hereafter to be a purchasing power dependent upon the labour of others. One man does his share of work in the world, and in the process he provides for his future wants through the medium of saved capital. There can be no doubt that if the English national debt were to be paid off there would be a considerable commotion among those holders of Consols who would be satisfied with nothing else half as well. While the times in which we live therefore, continue quiet, the credit of the Government is firmly maintained, and the savings of the people are large, there will be always more buyers than sellers of high-class securities while the return for the money is not less than about 3 per cent. Buyers would in most cases probably prefer to look in other directions than pay anything over par for Consols. The fluctuations under such circumstances are consequently very small, and there is nothing literally but a bare bone for a speculator to pick, which is not worth the commission, and he migrates into other markets. CHAPTER XIII. THE SHORT “TURNS,” OR, WHO MAKES THE PROFITS? [Sidenote: THE “TURN” A KNOWN QUANTITY ALWAYS AGAINST THE SPECULATOR.]