sustaining the ongoing mergers of major national exchanges. 1. Basic Definitions Any history of market globalization prior to the 20th century has to deal with semantic ‘stock’ complications, with perplexing habit of business nomenclature which seems to go out of its “the way to be unscientific and confusing” (Withers 1910, p.33). In particular, the securities being traded, market terminology and trading conventions are often determined by the dominant trading venue. During the 20th century, New York emerged as the center of globalized stock trading and came increasingly to refer only to equity securities, primarily ‘stock’ ‘common stock’. Withers (1910, p.55) describes market terminology at the beginning of the 20th century: are nearly always bearer securities, but are occasionally registered, and a bond “Bonds necessarily implies debt. Shares are always portions of a company’s capital, while stock may represent either capital or debt.” Observing that the stock has meant many things in the “word course of its versatile career”, Withers (1910, p.33-4) traces usage of term from Francis Bacon to Ben Jonson to Adam Smith where refers to capital of a firm or company the ‘stock’ “the … monetary resources which have been invested in its business or kept in hand for its daily needs.” From this point, evolved to mean received by those who subscribed the capital ‘stock’ “securities of companies, and then divided itself again to mean marketable securities in general, and a certain kind of marketable security in particular.” Ultimately, Withers (1910, p.34) decides the definition of applied to all the securities ‘stock’ “is dealt in on the Stock Exchanges.” This is consistent with referencing a broker’ as an ‘stock individual will buy and sell for you stocks, shares and bonds.” From this point, American “who practice has come to supplant the historical English convention of distinguishing between which represent indivisible equity securities typically issued in bearer form, and ‘shares’, ‘stock’,
sustaining the ongoing mergers of major national exchanges. 1. Basic Definitions Any history of ‘stock’ market globalization prior to the 20th century has to deal with semantic complications, with “the perplexing habit of business nomenclature which seems to go out of its way to be unscientific and confusing” (Withers 1910, p.33). In particular, the securities being traded, market terminology and trading conventions are often determined by the dominant trading venue. During the 20th century, New York emerged as the center of globalized stock trading and ‘stock’ came increasingly to refer only to equity securities, primarily ‘common stock’. Withers (1910, p.55) describes market terminology at the beginning of the 20th century: “Bonds are nearly always bearer securities, but are occasionally registered, and a bond necessarily implies debt. Shares are always portions of a company’s capital, while stock may represent either capital or debt.” Observing that the “word stock has meant many things in the course of its versatile career”, Withers (1910, p.33-4) traces usage of term from Francis Bacon to Ben Jonson to Adam Smith where ‘stock’ refers to “the capital of a firm or company … the monetary resources which have been invested in its business or kept in hand for its daily needs.” From this point, ‘stock’ evolved to mean “securities received by those who subscribed the capital of companies, and then divided itself again to mean marketable securities in general, and a certain kind of marketable security in particular.” Ultimately, Withers (1910, p.34) decides the definition of ‘stock’ “is applied to all the securities dealt in on the Stock Exchanges.” This is consistent with referencing a ‘stock broker’ as an individual “who will buy and sell for you stocks, shares and bonds.” From this point, American practice has come to supplant the historical English convention of distinguishing between ‘shares’, which represent indivisible equity securities typically issued in bearer form, and ‘stock’,
ch_3_gsm-hist_gp_$.docx