Stock exchange

STOCK EXCHANGE, a mart for the buying and selling of Government stocks, company shares, and various securities, carried on usually by the members of an associated body of brokers having certain rules and
regulations.

It is a body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, constituted for the purpose of assisting, regulating or controlling the business of buying, selling or dealing in securities.

Such associations exist now in most of the important cities of the United Kingdom and commercial world generally (on the Continent are known as Bourses). The London Stock Exchange, transacting business in handsome buildings in Capel Court, facing the Bank of England, was established in 1801, stock-exchange transactions previous to then being carried on in a loose, ill-regulated fashion by private parties chiefly in and around Change Alley, the scene of the memorable SOUTH SEA BUBBLE speculation. The great development in stock-exchange business in recent times is due chiefly to the sale of foreign and colonial bonds, and the remarkable growth and spread of joint-stock companies since the Joint-Stock Company Act of 1862.