Part 68 (1/2)

In 1772, the occurrence of some Scotch failures led to a Change-Alley panic, and the downfall of Alexander Fordyce, who, for years, had been the most thriving jobber in London. He was a hosier in Aberdeen, but came to London to improve his fortunes. The money game was in his favour. He was soon able to purchase a large estate. He built a church at his private cost, and spent thousands in trying to obtain a seat in Parliament. Marrying a lady of t.i.tle, on whom he made a liberal settlement, he bought several Scotch lairds.h.i.+ps, endowed an hospital, and founded several charities. But the lease of his property was short.

His speculations suddenly grew desperate; hopeless ruin ensued; and a great number of capitalists were involved in his fall. The consternation was extreme, nor can we wonder, since his bills, to the amount of 4,000,000, were in circulation. He earnestly sought, but in vain, for pecuniary aid. The Bank refused it, and when he applied for help to a wealthy Quaker, ”Friend Fordyce,” was the answer, ”I have known many men ruined by _two dice_, but I will not be ruined by _Four-dice_.”

In 1785, a stockbroker, named Atkinson, probably from the ”North Countree,” speculated enormously, but skilfully, we must suppose, for he realised a fortune of 500,000. His habits were eccentric. At a friend's dinner party he abruptly turned to a lady who occupied the next chair, saying, ”If you, madam, will entrust me with 1,000 for three years, I will employ it advantageously.” The speaker was well known, and his offer accepted; and at the end of the three years, to the very day, Atkinson called on the lady with 10,000, to which, by his adroit management, her deposit had increased.

In general (says ”Aleph,” in the _City Press_), a stock-jobber's pursuits tend to shorten life; violent excitement, and the constant alternation of hope and fear, wear out the brain, and soon lead to disease or death. Yet instances of great longevity occur in this cla.s.s: John Rive, after many active years in the Alley, retired to the Continent, and died at the age of 118.

The author of ”The Bank Mirror” (circa 1795) gives a graphic description of the Stock Exchange of that period. ”The scene opens,” he says, ”about twelve, with the call of the prices of stock, the shouting out of names, the recital of news, &c., much in the following manner:--'A mail come in--What news? what news?--Steady, steady--Consols for to-morrow--Here, Consols!--You old Timber-toe, have you got any scrip?--Private advices from--A wicked old peer in disguise sold--What do you do?--Here, Consols! Consols!--Letters from--A great house has stopt--Payment of the Five per Cents commences--Across the Rhine--The Austrians routed--The French pursuing!--Four per Cents for the opening!--Four per Cents--Sir Sydney Smith exchanged for--Short Annuities--Shorts! Shorts! Shorts!--A messenger extraordinary sent to--Gibraltar fortifying against--A Spanish fleet seen in--Reduced Annuities for to-morrow--I'm a seller of--Lame ducks waddling--Under a cloud hanging over--The Cape of Good Hope retaken by--Lottery tickets!--Here, tickets! tickets! tickets!--The Archduke Charles of Austria fled into--India Stock!--Clear the way, there, Moses!--Reduced Annuities for money!--I'm a buyer--Reduced!

Reduced! (_Rattles spring._) What a d----d noise you make there with the rattles!--Five per Cents!--I'm a seller!--Five per Cents! Five per Cents!--The French in full march for--The Pope on his knees--following the direction of his native meekness into--Consols! Consols!--Smoke the old girl in silk shoes there! Madam, do you want a broker?--Four per Cents--The Dutch fleet skulked into--Short Annuities!--The French army retreating!--The Austrians pursuing!--Consols! Consols! Bravo!--Who's afraid?--Up they go! up they go!--'De Empress de Russia dead!'--You lie, Mordecai! I'll stuff your mouth with pork, you dog!--Long Annuities!

Long Annuities! Knock that fellow's hat off, there!--He'll waddle, to-morrow--Here, Long Annuities! Short Annuities--Longs and Shorts!--The Prince of Conde fled!--Consols!--The French bombarding Frankfort!--Reduced Annuities--Down they go! down they go!--You, Levi, you're a thief, and I'm a gentleman--Step to Garraway's, and bid Isaacs come here--Bank Stock!--Consols!--Give me thy hand, Solomon!--Didst thou not hear the guns fire?--n.o.ble news! great news!--Here, Consols! St. Lucia taken!--St. Vincent taken!--French fleets blocked up! English fleets triumphant! Bravo! Up we go! up, up, up!--Imperial Annuities!

Imperial! Imperial!--Get out of my suns.h.i.+ne, Moses, you d--d little Israelite!--Consols! Consols! &c.' ... The noise of the screech-owl, the howling of the wolf, the barking of the mastiff, the grunting of the hog, the braying of the a.s.s, the nocturnal wooing of the cat, the hissing of the snake, the croaking of toads, frogs, and gra.s.shoppers--all these in unison could not be more hideous than the noise which these beings make in the Stock Exchange. And as several of them get into the Bank, the beadles are provided with rattles, which they occasionally spring, to drown their noise and give the fair purchaser or seller room and opportunity to transact their business; for that part of the Rotunda to which the avenue from Bartholomew Lane leads is often so crowded with them that people cannot enter.”

About 1799, the shares of this old Stock Exchange having fallen into few hands, they boldly attempted, instead of a sixpenny diurnal admission to every person presenting himself at the bar, to make it a close subscription-room of ten guineas per annum for each member, and thereby to shut out all petty or irregular traffickers, to increase the revenues of this their monopolised market. A violent democracy revolted at this imposition and invasion of the rights, privileges, and immunities of a public market for the public stock. They proposed to raise 263 shares of 50 each, creating a fund of 13,150 wherewith to build a new, uninfluenced, unaristocraticised, free, open market. Those shares were never, as in the old conventicle, to condense into a few hands, for fear of a dread aristocracy returning. Mendoza's boxing-room, the debating-forum up Capel Court, and buildings contiguous with the freehold site, were purchased, and the foundation-stone was laid for this temple, to be, when completed, consecrated to free, open traffic.

In 1805 Ambrose Charles, a Bank clerk, publicly charged the Earl of Moira, a cabinet minister, with using official intelligence to aid him in speculating in the funds. The Premier was compelled to investigate the charge, but no truthful evidence could be adduced, and the falsehood of his allegations was made apparent.

Mark Sprat, a remarkable speculator, died in 1808. He came to London with small means, but getting an introduction to the Stock Exchange, was wonderfully successful. In 1799 he contracted for the Lottery; and in 1800 and the three following years he was foremost among those who contracted for the loans. During Lord Melville's trial, he was asked whether he did not act as banker for members of both houses. ”I never do business with privileged persons!” was his reply, which might have referred to the following fact:--A broker came to Sprat in great distress. He had acted largely for a princ.i.p.al who, the prices going against him, refused to make up his losses. ”Who was the scoundrel?” ”A n.o.bleman of immense property.” Sprat volunteered to go with him to his dishonest debtor. The great man coolly answered, it was not convenient to pay. The broker declared that unless the account was settled by a fixed hour next day, his lords.h.i.+p would be posted as a defaulter. Long before the time appointed the matter was arranged, and Sprat's friend rescued from ruin.

The history of the money articles in the London papers is thus given by the author of ”The City.” In 1809 and 1810 (says the writer), the papers had commenced regularly to publish the prices of Consols and the other securities then in the market, but the list was merely furnished by a stockbroker, who was allowed, as a privilege for his services, to append his name and address, thereby receiving the advantages of an advertis.e.m.e.nt without having to pay for it. A further improvement was effected by inserting small paragraphs, giving an outline of events occurring in relation to City matters, but these occupied no acknowledged position, and only existed as ordinary intelligence.

However, from 1810 up to 1817, considerable changes took place in the arrangements of the several daily journals; and a new era almost commenced in City life with the numerous companies started on the joint-stock principle at the more advanced period, and then it was that this department appears to have received serious attention from the heads of the leading journals.

The description of matter comprised in City articles has not been known in its present form more than fifty years. There seems a doubt whether they first originated with the _Times_ or the _Herald_. Opinion is by some parties given in favour of the last-mentioned paper. Whichever establishment may be ent.i.tled to the praise for commencing so useful a compendium of City news, one thing appears very certain--viz., that no sooner was it adopted by the one paper, than the other followed closely in the line chalked out. The regular City article appears only to have had existence since 1824-25, when the first effect of that over-speculating period was felt in the insolvency of public companies, and the breakage of banks. Contributions of this description had been made and published, as already noticed, in separate paragraphs throughout the papers as early as 1811 and 1812; but these took no very prominent position till the more important period of the close of the war, and the declaration of peace with Europe.

In 1811, the case of Benjamin Walsh, M.P., a member of the Stock Exchange, occasioned a prodigious sensation. Sir Thomas Plomer employed him as his broker, and, buying an estate, found it necessary to sell stock. Walsh advised him not to sell directly, as the funds were rising; the deeds were not prepared, and the advice was accepted. Soon after, Walsh said the time to sell was come, for the funds would quickly fall.

The money being realised, Walsh recommended the purchase of exchequer bills as a good investment. Till the cash was wanted, Sir Thomas gave a cheque for 22,000 to Walsh, who undertook to lodge the notes at Gosling's. In the evening he brought an acknowledgment for 6,000, promising to make up the amount next day. Sir Thomas called at his bankers, and found that a cheque for 16,000 had been sent, but too late for presentation, and in the morning the cheque was refused. In fact, Walsh had disposed of the whole; giving 1,000 to his broker, purchasing 11,000 of American stock, and buying 5,000 worth of Portuguese doubloons. He was tried and declared guilty; but certain legal difficulties were interposed; the judges gave a favourable decision; he was released from Newgate, and formally expelled from the House of Commons. Such crimes seem almost incredible, for such culprits can have no chance of escape; as, even when the verdict of a jury is favourable, their character and position must be absolutely and hopelessly lost.

In these comparatively steady-going times, the funds often remain for months with little or no variation; but during the last years of the French war, a difference of eight or even ten per cent. might happen in an hour, and scripholders might realise eighteen or twenty per cent. by the change in the loans they so eagerly sought. From what a fearful load of ever-increasing expenditure the nation was relieved by the peace resulting from the battle of Waterloo, may be judged from the fact that the decrease of Government charges was at once declared to exceed 2,000,000 per month.

One of the most extraordinary Stock Exchange conspiracies ever devised was that carried out by De Berenger and Cochrane Johnstone in 1814. It was a time when Bonaparte's military operations against the allies had depressed the funds, and great national anxiety prevailed. The conspiracy was dramatically carried out. On the 21st of February, 1824, about one a.m., a violent knocking was heard at the door of the ”s.h.i.+p Inn,” then the princ.i.p.al hotel of Dover. On the door being opened, a person in richly embroidered scarlet uniform, wet with spray, announced himself as Lieutenant-Colonel De Bourg, aide-de-camp of Lord Cathcart.

He had a star and silver medals on his breast, and wore a dark fur travelling cap, banded with gold. He said he had been brought over by a French vessel from Calais, the master of which, afraid of touching at Dover, had landed him about two miles off, along the coast. He was the bearer of important news--the allies had gained a great victory and had entered Paris. Bonaparte had been overtaken by a detachment of Sachen's Cossacks, who had slain and cut him into a thousand pieces. General Platoff had saved Paris from being reduced to ashes. The white c.o.c.kade was worn everywhere, and an immediate peace was now certain. He immediately ordered out a post-chaise and four, but first wrote the news to Admiral Foley, the port-admiral at Deal. The letter reached the admiral about four a.m., but the morning proving foggy, the telegraph would not work. Off dashed De Bourg (really De Berenger, an adventurer, afterwards a livery-stable keeper), throwing napoleons to the post-boys every time he changed horses. At Bexley Heath, finding the telegraph could not have worked, he moderated his pace and spread the news of the Cossacks fighting for Napoleon's body. At the Marsh Gate, Lambeth, he entered a hackney coach, telling the post-boys to spread the news on their return. By a little after ten, the rumours reached the Stock Exchange, and the funds rose; but on its being found that the Lord Mayor had had no intelligence, they soon went down again.

In the meantime other artful confederates were at work. The same day, about an hour before daylight, two men, dressed as foreigners, landed from a six-oar galley, and called on a gentleman of Northfleet, and handed him a letter from an old friend, begging him to take the bearers to London, as they had great public news to communicate; they were accordingly taken. About twelve or one the same afternoon, three persons (two of whom were dressed as French officers) drove slowly over London Bridge in a post-chaise, the horses of which were bedecked with laurel.

The officers scattered billets to the crowd, announcing the death of Napoleon and the fall of Paris. They then paraded through Cheapside and Fleet Street, pa.s.sed over Blackfriars Bridge, drove rapidly to the Marsh Gate, Lambeth, got out, changed their c.o.c.ked hats for round ones, and disappeared as De Bourg had done.

The funds once more rose, and long bargains were made; but still some doubt was felt by the less sanguine, as the ministers as yet denied all knowledge of the news. Hour after hour pa.s.sed by, and the certainty of the falsity of the news gradually developed itself. ”To these scenes of joy,” says a witness, ”and of greedy expectations of gain, succeeded, in a few hours, disappointment and shame at having been gulled, the clenching of fists, the grinding of teeth, the tearing of hair, all the outward and visible signs of those inward commotions of disappointed avarice in some, consciousness of ruin in others, and in all boiling revenge.” A committee was appointed by the Stock Exchange to track out the conspiracy, as on the two days before Consols and Omnium, to the amount of 826,000, had been purchased by persons implicated. Because one of the gang had for a blind called on the celebrated Lord Cochrane, and because a relation of his engaged in the affair had purchased Consols for him, that he might unconsciously benefit by the fraud, the Tories, eager to destroy a bitter political enemy, concentrated all their rage on as high-minded, pure, and chivalrous a man as ever trod a frigate's deck. He was tried June 21, 1817, at the Court of Queen's Bench, fined 1,000, and sentenced ignominiously to stand one hour in the pillory. This latter part of his sentence the Government was, however, afraid to carry out, as Sir Francis Burdett had declared that if it was done, he would stand beside his friend on the scaffold of shame. To crown all, Cochrane's political enemies had him stripped of his knighthood, and the escutcheon of his order disgracefully kicked down the steps of the chapel in Westminster Abbey. For some years this true successor of Nelson remained a branded exile, devoting his courage to the cause of universal liberty, lost to the country which he loved so much. In his old age tardy justice restored to him his unsoiled coronet, and finally awarded him a grave among her heroes.

The ticket pocketing of 1821 is thus described by the author of ”An Expose of the Mysteries of the Stock Exchange:”--”Of all the tricks,” he says, ”practised against Goldschmidt, the ticket pocketing scheme was, perhaps, the most iniquitous: it was to prevent the buying in on a settling day the balance of the account, and to defeat the consequent rise, thereby making the real bear a fict.i.tious bull account. To give the reader a conception of this, and of the practices as well as the interior of the Stock Exchange, the following attempted delineation is submitted:--The doors open before ten, and at the minute of ten the spirit-stirring rattle grates to action. Consols are, suppose, 69 to 69-1/8--that is, buyers at the lower and sellers at the higher price.

Trifling manoeuvres and puffing up till twelve, as neither party wish the Government broker to buy under the highest price; the sinking-fund purchaser being the point of diurnal alt.i.tude, as the period before a loan is the annually depressed point of price, when the Stock Exchange have the orbit of these revolutions under their own control.

”At twelve the broker mounts the rostrum and opens: 'Gentlemen, I am a buyer of 60,000 Consols for Government, at 69.' 'At 1/8th, sir,' the jobbers resound; 'ten thousand of me--five of me--two of me,' holding up as many fingers. Nathan, Goldschmidt's agent, says, 'You may have them all of me at your own bidding, 69.' In ten minutes this commission is earned from the public, and this state sinking-fund joint stock jobbed.

Nathan is hustled, his hat and wig thrown upon the commissioner's sounding-board, and he must stand bareheaded until the porter can bring a ladder to get it down. Out squalls a ticket-carrier, 'Done at 7/8;'

again, 'At 3/4, all a-going;' and the contractors must go, too; they have served the commissioners at 69, when the market was full one-eighth. All must come to market before next omnium payment; they cannot keep it up (yet this operation might have suited the positions of the market). Nathan cries out, 'Where done at 3/4ths?' 'Here--there, there, there!' Mr. Doubleface, going out at the door, meets Mr. Ambush, a brother bear, with a wink, 'Sir, they are 3/4ths, I believe, sellers; you may have 2,000 thereat, and 10,000 at 5/8ths.' This is called fiddling: it is allowable to jobbers thus to bring the turn to 1/16th, or a 32nd, but not to brokers, as thereby the public would not be fleeced 1/8th, to the house benefit. 'Sir, I would not take them at 1/4th,' replies Mr. Ambush. 'Offered at 3/4ths and 5/8ths,' bawls out an urchin scout, holding up his face to the ceiling, that by the re-echo his spot may not be discovered.”

The system of business at the Stock Exchange is thus described by an accomplished writer on the subject: ”Bargains are made in the presence of a third person. The terms are simply entered in a pocket-book, but are checked the next day; and the jobber's clerk (also a member of the house) pays or receives the money, and sees that the securities are correct. There are but three or four dealers in Exchequer bills. Most members of the Stock Exchange keep their money in convertible securities, so that it can be changed from hand to hand almost at a moment's notice. The brokers execute the orders of bankers, merchants, and private individuals; and the jobbers are the persons with whom they deal. When the broker appears in the market, he is at once surrounded by eager jobbers. One of the cries of the Stock Exchange is, 'Borrow money?

borrow money?'--a singular cry to general apprehension, but it of course implies that the credit of the borrower must be first-rate, or his security of the most satisfactory nature, and that it is not the princ.i.p.al who goes into the market, but only the princ.i.p.al's broker.

'Have you money to lend to-day?' is a startling question often asked with perfect _nonchalance_ in the Stock Exchange. If the answer is 'Yes,' the borrower says, 'I want 10,000 or 20,000.'--'At what security?' is the vital question that soon follows.

”Another mode of doing business is to conceal the object of the borrower or lender, who asks, 'What are Exchequer?' The answer may be, 'Forty and forty-two.' That is, the party addressed will buy 1,000 at 40 s.h.i.+llings, and sell 1,000 at 42 s.h.i.+llings. The jobbers cl.u.s.ter round the broker, who perhaps says, 'I must have a price in 5,000.' If it suits them, they will say, 'Five with me,' 'Five with me,' 'Five with me,' making fifteen; or they will say, 'Ten with me;' and it is the broker's business to get these parties pledged to buy of him at 40, or to sell to him at 42, they not knowing whether he is a buyer or a seller. The broker then declares his purpose, saying, for example, 'Gentlemen, I sell to you 20,000 at 40;' and the sum is then apportioned among them. If the money were wanted only for a month, and the Exchequer market remained the same during the time, the buyer would have to give 42 in the market for what he sold at 40, being the difference between the buying and the selling price, besides which he would have to pay the broker 1s. per cent. commission on the sale, and 1s. per cent. on the purchase, again on the bills, which would make altogether 4s. per cent. If the object of the broker be to buy Consols, the jobber offers to buy his 10,000 at 96, or to sell him that amount at 96-1/8, without being at all aware which he is engaging himself to do. The same person may not know on any particular day whether he will be a borrower or a lender. If he has sold stock, and has not re-purchased about one or two o'clock in the day, he would be a lender of money; but if he has bought stock, and not sold, he would be a borrower. Immense sums are lent on condition of being recalled on the short notice of a few hours.”