20 The Stock Market Crash—dAnd After 
and 83.5, respectively, at the dates named. English 
stock prices, however, had fallen pretty consistently 
since the first of 1929, going from 198.9 in the week 
ended January rith to 167.3 at the end of August, 
and 91.4 at the end of December, a decline by more 
than one-half in a year. No doubt the London 
decline, setting in much earlier than our own, helped 
give the American crash in stock prices its initial 
:mpulse. 
In fact, the British crash, dating from August 30 
and starting a full week earlier than the American 
break, plunged common share averages to a lower 
level on the London Exchange than in New York 
(see Chart 5). The extreme range of the American 
decline was 16 per cent less than the fall of stocks in 
London. It was a world crash in stocks which 
started, not in New York. but in London, and 
wrought havoc in Paris and Berlin as well as on the 
American Exchanges.