STOCKS, a term applied to the various " Funds " which constitute the national debt. Each proprietor of stock may transfer his interest to others by sale. When the transfer is effected by a broker he must be authorised by a power of attorney from his principal, the stamp duty on which is 21a. Gd.; and the document may be so drawn as to empower him both to buy and sell stock and to receive the dividends for the person by whom he is commissioned. Few persons buy or sell stock except through the medium of a broker, but the general practice is to receive their dividends themselves. The purchaser acquires the dividend due upon the stock for the current half-year, and thus at one point there will be a sum of 29s. 4d. due on three per cent. stock, and a fortnight afterwards only la. 3d. On the bargain being completed, the parties repair to the Bank to transfer the stock. " For this pur pose the seller makes out a note in writing, which contains the name and designation of the seller and purchaser and the sum and descrip tion of the stock to be transferred. He delivers this to the proper clerk, and then fills up a receipt, a printed form of which, with blanks, is obtained at the office. The clerk, in the mean time, examines the seller's accounts; and if he find him possessed of the stock proposed to be sold, he makes out the transfer. This is signed in the books by the seller, who delivers the receipt to the clerk ; and upon the pur chaser's signing his acceptance in the book, the clerk signs the receipt as witness. It is then delivered to the purchaser upon payment of the money, and thus the business is completed." (Dr. Hamilton, ' History of the National Debt.') Bargains in stock are transa.cted in the Stock Exchange, in Capel court. All the more respectable brokers are members of the Stock Exchange, into which association they are elected annually by ballot ; but many of the jobbers, who are not members and carry on their transactions outside the exchange, are said to be persons of wealth. The governing body consists of a committee of twenty-fmir, also elected by ballot. The established rate of brokerage is one-eighth per cent. (or 2s. Gd. in the I00/.) upon the amount of stock transferred.
The dividends on all descriptions of stock are due half-yearly, either on the 5th of January and 5th of July, or on the 5th of April and 10th of October, and are paid about a week afterwards; and for about six weeks previously, the books at the Transfer Office being closed, transfers cannot be regularly made. The transfers ou each stock are effected at other times only on certain days in the week, which may be ascertained by a reference to any almanac.
The bargains for time form a very important portion of the business of the Stock Exchange. , They are bargains to deliver stock on a cer tain day at a certain price, the seller of course believing that the price will fall, and the buyer that it will rise. When the period for com
pleting the bargain has arrived, a settlement is usually effected without any payment of stock, the losing party simply paying the difference, " These bargains are usually made for certain days fixed by a com mittee of the Stock Exchange, called settling days, of which there are about eight in the year, namely, one in each of the months of January, February, April, May, July, August, October, and November; and they are always on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, being the days on which the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt make purchases. The settling days in January and July are always the first days of the opening of the bank books for public transfer ; and these days are notified at the bank, when the books are shut to prepare for the dividend. The price at which stock is sold to be transferred on the next settling day is called the price on account. Sometimes, instead of closing the account on the settling day, the stock is carried on to a future day on as the parties agree on. This is called a continuation." (Dr. Hamilton.) A defaulter, in the language of the Stock Exchange, is termed a " lame duck," and his name is posted for a certain time in the great room. The sellers of time bargains are also technically called " bears," and the buyers " bulls ; ' the interest of the former being to beat down prices, and of the latter to raise them.
Stock of a high denomination may usually be bought cheaper than that of which the nominal interest is lower ; and it is therefore the most advantageous for temporary investment. There is always a pro bability that the stock bearing the highest rate of interest will be reduced by the government when a favourable occasion presents itself; but the price of any one stock may be taken pretty nearly as an indi cation of the prices of the rest. The fluctuation in the price of stocks generally may be traced to an almost infinite variety of causes—to the abundance or scarcity of money, and the opportunities of employing it to advantage in mercantile speculations; to the rumours of a new loan, or of the imposition of a fresh tax, or even the repeal of a tax ; to rumours of war ; and to innumerable other circumstances relating to the trade, finance, and other domestic affitirs of the country. In 1797 the Three per Cents. were reduced to the lowest point which they have ever reached (471) by the success of the French armies, combined with adverse circumstances at home.
Besides the English funds, shares in many descriptions of foreign stocks, which have been created by loans raised In this country, are constantly for sale in the money-market, as are also shares in railway, canal, mining, and numerous other similar speculations.