The work of the Stock Exchange

Bibliographic data

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.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

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

Collection:: Economics Books

STOCK SPECULATION—DANGERS AND BENEFITS 149 crumbling walls of our burned-down palaces “Finis Galliae,” the Bourse kept its faith in France and her fortune, and that faith in France was spread by it all around, at home and abroad. Speculation was patriotic in its way; it exhibited a confidence in our resources which the discretion of many a wise man rated as fool- hardy. Have we already forgotten our great loans for liberation? Without the Bourse, these colossal loans, the amounts of which ex- ceeded the dreams of financiers, would never have been subscribed for, or, if ever, it would have been only at rates much more onerous for the country. . . . If France regained her rank among the nations of the world so quickly, the credit for it should be given mainly to the Bourse. And to its services in war, we should, if we wanted to be just, also add its services in time of peace. Without the extensiveness of the Paris market, and the stimulus given to our capitalists through speculation, how many things would have remained unaccomplished in the reck- lessly overdriven condition of our finances? We should have been unable to complete our railroad system, or renew our national stock of tools, or create beyond the seas a colonial empire which shall cause France to be again one of the great world powers. When the Bourse is on trial, such credentials should not be overlooked. Before con- demning it in the name of morality and private interests, a patriot should give due consideration to its services rendered for the national weal; if all its defects and misdeeds be heaped up on one scale tray, then services of like importance will easily counterbalance them. This is the testimony, bear in mind, of a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, and a citizen of France, that thriftiest and most cautious race of investors in the world. A More Recent Example.—Nor do we need go so far afield as France, nor so far back as a half-century, to cite equally significant instances of the intervention of the specu- lator to maintain civilization during a time of stress and doubt. The vast readjustment from war to peace conditions, after the fleeting and feverish boom of 1919-20, threw the whole world into the depths of an economic depression unparalleled in modern times. Age-old thrones had crashed. Novel experi- ments in government were being attempted. ILong-established

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