14 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
fallen, and by mobilizing their purchasing succeeds more easily 
in stabilizing the market. 
The full significance of this ability of the stock exchanges 
to render their listed issues instantly negotiable, can be realized 
only by examining the vast scope and enormous aggregate 
amount of such listings. The market value of all securities 
listed upon the New York Stock Exchange during the spring 
of 1930 amounted to more than one hundred billions of dollars. 
This gigantic sum is more than the estimated national wealth 
of any modern country, except the United States and the 
United Kingdom. It represents the equivalent of between 
a quarter to a third of our own estimated national wealth. Yet, 
‘hrough the organization of the New York Stock Exchange 
(including its far-flung ticker wires and the national and even 
international extension of its members’ branch and correspond- 
ent offices) any part of this colossal total can be at any time 
sold under the highest safeguards thus far obtainable in 
security marketing. Upon this assured marketability, busi- 
ness men and business concerns of countless types continually 
depend. 
Only twice in its long history has the New York Stock 
Exchange been forced to close its doors—for ten days after 
the panic of 1873, and for a little over four months during the 
period of financial chaos in 1914 which followed the declara- 
tion of the World War. On the latter occasion, the New York 
Stock Exchange, although at that time the premier capital 
market of an international debtor nation, was the last of the 
great security markets of the world to close, and the first to 
reopen with all its normal facilities intact and available to the 
public. In the 1929 crisis, the New York Stock Exchange 
refused to close, although the overwhelming volume of trans- 
actions suddenly thrust upon it led temporarily to a shortening 
of trading hours and to the establishment of a few special 
holidays, in order to keep abreast of the work and to give highly 
trained and irreplaceable employees necessary rest and sleep. 
Many delicate financial operations—such as arbitrage—