CHAPTER  VIL

THE  WORLD'S  STOCK  MARKETS.
Every  important  commercial  centre  has  a  Stock
Exchange  of  its  own,  and  the  dealings  in  every
one  of  these  Stock  Exchanges  are  naturally
confined  to  those  securities  which  are  held  by
the  public  of  the  neighbourhood  in  which  each
Stock  Exchange  is  situated.
Some  stocks  are  held  in  many  quarters  of
the  globe.  Dealings  in  them  therefore  take
place  on  a  large  number  of  Stock  Exchanges.
Other,  or  so-called  “local  ”  stocks,  are  not  so
widely  distributed,  and  therefore  not  so
universally  dealt  in.  It  is  really  not  the  size
of  a  stock  which  determines  its  number  of
regular  markets,  but  simply  the  manner  in
which  it  is  distributed  among  the  population
of  the  world.  Thus,  there  are  some  large  and
important  stocks  representing  millions  of  capital ­
  which  have  only  one  principal  market,  like
British  Consols,  the  only  real  market  for  these
being  London  ;  whilst  comparatively  much
smaller  issues,  like  the  loans  of  the  Turkish
Empire,  are  dealt  in  on  nearly  every  Stock
Exchange  in  Europe.