Amongst  Stock  Exchange  securities  the
British  Trustee  stocks  are  rightly  considered
to  he  the  soundest  type  of  investment.  In
this  book  we  deal  with  stocks  and  shares  only,
and  therefore  we  here  leave  all  other  forms  of
investment  out  of  consideration.  In  spite,
however,  of  their  individual  merits,  an  investment ­
  made  in  Trustee  stocks  in  1896  and
realised  in  1903  would  have  produced  a
result  similar  to  the  following  :—
Bought  in  1896.
£1,500  Birmingham  Corporation  3|  per  cent.
stock  at  131  £1,965
£1,300  London  &  North  Western  Railway
4  per  cent.  Preference  at  160  ...  2,080
£1,600  Southern  Mahratta  Railway  3|  per
cent.  Guaranteed  at  129  2,064
£6,109
Value  in  1903.
£1,500  Birmingham  Corporation  3|  per  cent.
stock  at  104  £1,560
£1,300  London  &  North  Western  Railway
4  per  cent.  Preference  at  125  ...  1,625
£1,600  Southern  Mahratta  Railway  3^  per
cent.  Guaranteed  at  104  1,664
£4,849
Lo**  £1,260
We  should  explain  that  the  prices  quoted
in  the  above  tables  do  not  represent  the  full
extremes  of  fluctuation  during  the  period
under  review.  Had  we  attempted  to  stretch