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any  one  country  is  speculating  on  the  future
trading  pi'ofits  of  that  country.
We  also  see,  by  comparing  these  annual
totals  with  the  price-movements  of  individual
stocks  on  the  chart,  that  the  final  result  which
an  investor  will  achieve  by  investing  in  British
stocks  is  practically  unaffected  by  the  number
of  stocks  he  may  select.
Although  the  rule  that  the  price  of  every
stock  is  mainly  controlled  by  the  trading  conditions ­
  of  the  country  in  which  it  is  chiefly
dealt  in  is  universal  in  its  application,  there
are,  of  course,  many  exceptions  to  this  rule.
But  the  exceptions,  although  by  no  means  infrequent, ­
  are  seldom  to  be  met  with  amongst
the  representative  stocks  of  any  country.
There  are  stocks  in  existence  which  so
seldom  change  hands  that  their  quoted  prices
may  be  said  to  solidify  to  an  extent  which
renders  them  insensible  to  the  prevailing
Trade  Influence.  Moreover,  individuals  or
groups  of  individuals  frequently  create  artificial
exceptions  to  this  rule.
We  will  illustrate  our  meaning  by  giving
an  example  of  an  artificially  solidified  stock.
We  have  already  shown  that  British  stocks
started  from  a  low  level  of  prices  in  1893,
steadily  rose  until  1896-7,  and  then  fell  away
again  more  or  less  rapidly.  This  was  the