The work of the Stock Exchange

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1831284952

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-225876

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Meeker, James Edward http://d-nb.info/gnd/126597340

Title:: The work of the Stock Exchange

Edition:: Revised edition

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: The Ronald Press Company

Year of publication:: [1930]

Scope:: XVI, 720 Seiten; Illustrationen, Diagramme

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter V. The dangers and benefits of stock speculation

Collection:: Economics Books

[44 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE borne, if not by the private speculator, nor to inquire what is the moral of Lenin’s recent experiment in Russia in “abolish- ing” both speculation and private property. Yet it surely argues little for the wisdom or consistency of those who con- demn socialism as roundly as the writer could wish, that they should be equally ready to attack speculation, which is one of the cornerstones of private property and private ownership. But we must not hold the idea that speculation, with all the harm it occasionally works to the individual, is simply an ancient and unshakable evil which fate has condemned us to endure with what grace we can muster. Speculation in several {istinct ways is a positive and constructively beneficial factor in modern civilization, as a moment’s reflection will show. Speculation a Phase of All Pioneering.— Financial specu- ation plays an integral part in all pioneering and in all the pre- iminary and experimental stages of new enterprise. In almost every instance, financial speculation has been the mainspring nd economic basis of those bold and hazardous explorations which have discovered and opened up new continents, and of ‘hose inventions which have subjected even the blind forces of aature to man’s will. Behind almost every pioneer whom his- tory has declared a hero has stood some financial speculator, unhonored, unsung, and usually forgotten, who nevertheless must have possessed some of the hardihood and imagination of the actual adventurers whom he financed. Even good Queen Bess, so the story goes, did her share in financing the bold Francis Drake in his amazing forays upon the plateships of the Spanish Main, which cleared the way for the British coloniza- tion of North America. And so it has been since her day with adventurers and pioneers, successful and unsuccessful. No business in the world is so entirely judged by results as speculation; if the adventure succeeds, the speculator is pro- claimed a genius, while if it fails, he is ridiculed as a credulous fool. And vet. however valuable or practical the inventor’s

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