26 
The reason of this seemingly contradictory 
movement was that the Taff Vale Railway 
Ordinary stock, being a British security whose 
market is entirely in this country, was more 
dependent for its price fluctuations on the 
trading and financial conditions of Great 
Britain, and their effect on the London Stock 
Exchange, than it was on its own merits. 
The price of Taff Vale stock did not there 
fore improve with its improving yield and its 
enhanced capital safety, hut simply followed in 
* the wake of the general investment conditions 
obtaining on the British Stock. Exchanges. 
This example is not an isolated one, and 
similar cases occur by no means infrequently. 
Thus, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway 
Ordinary stock sold in 1904 as high as 
111 ; early in 1907 its price was 101, yet 
the dividends paid on this stock were as 
follows : 1904, 3f per cent. ; 1905, 3} per 
cent. ; 1906, 4f per cent. Again, South 
Eastern Railway Preferred Ordinary stock 
received the following dividends : 1904, 4£ 
per cent. ; 1905, 5 per cent. ; 1906, 5¿ per 
cent. ; whilst in 1904 the stock sold at 135 
and early in 1907 at 115. A large number 
of equally striking examples could be qtioted. 
So as to make it additionally clear that it 
is the Market Influence which mainly controls