66 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
tion was ultimately found by creating large stock corporations, 
whose bonds and shares were soon listed on the Stock Ex- 
change. Largely through its efforts they were sold to the 
investing public, which in this way became creditors and part- 
ners in the new companies and provided much of the capital 
which was required. In 1830 the first railroad stock—that of 
the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad—was listed on the New 
York Stock Exchange. Almost simultaneously the older Lon- 
don Stock Exchange began to quote nineteen American railroad 
stocks—the beginning of the famous “Yankee rail market” 
there, which did so much to make our present system of railroad 
transportation in this country possible. 
The Stock Exchange During the Civil War Period.— 
Through the fifties the Exchange continued to grow along with 
the rest of the country. The exploitation of petroleum fields 
in Pennsylvania created a new class of Wall Street operators 
and investors, often referred to as the “Coal-oil Johnnies,” 
while the discovery of precious metals in the West was also 
soon reflected in the ever-broadening New York stock market. 
On a single day in 1857 some forgotten chronicler proudly 
remarked that fully 70,000 shares changed hands in its market. 
The perennial problem of the Exchange to obtain large enough 
quarters was also already upon it.* In 1863 the New York 
Stock Exchange Building Company was organized, and it set 
about to provide a permanent and commodious home for the 
Exchange, which in the same year adopted its present title of 
“The New York Stock Exchange.” Owing to its efforts, the 
market in 1865 moved into a building on Broad Street on ‘the 
site of the much larger present-day quarters of the Exchange. 
But all the new space thus made available, and more too, 
was soon needed. The enormous issues of irredeemable paper 
currency put out by the government during and after the Civil 
War had the immediate effect of inflating and temporarily 
stimulating American business. New enterprises were started, 
{See Appendix IIIb.