492 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE
of our own nation, a former chapter has already described
how the issuance of the original 6% bonds of the United States
Government was primarily responsible for the first gathering
of the earliest Wall Street stock-brokers under the buttonwood
tree,
Furnishing the Sinews of War.—A study of the listings
of the New York Stock Exchange during the past century
reveals many instances when the latter institution extended no
small assistance to the United States Government by providing
a ready market for the purchase and sale of its interest-bearing
debt. Following the 6% loan into which the debt incurred
during the American Revolution was funded, new forms of
the government debt found their dominant market on the Ex-
change during the Civil and Spanish wars. Still more recently,
the huge Liberty Loan issues were and are being distributed
there.? In the successful initial marketing of these issues the
Exchange can also take a pardonable pride, since many of the
more technical features of the task were accomplished through
its cooperation.
The government is, of course, dependent for its income
upon taxation, which in turn depends upon the contemporary
condition of business. Since the Exchange serves as an in-
direct but powerful stabilizing force in American credit con-
ditions, it very generally assists in making it easier to levy and
collect taxes. During the period of severe war taxation how
often has the individual or the corporation been able to obtain
cash to pay its taxes only by liquidating its security investments
on the Exchange! The Exchange serves to give American
property that convertibility into cash and that value as collateral
which are so vital to the necessities of government as well as of
business. In addition to these services, past and present, which
the Stock Exchange has rendered the Federal government, it
has performed a similar service for many states, counties, and
municipalities.
2 See Chapter III, p. 62.
22 See Chapter IV, p. 96, and Chapter X, p. 267.
