Chapter XLI: The Stock Exchange

The Kingdom of Change Alley--A William III. Reuter--Stock Exchange Tricks--Bulls and Bears--Thomas Guy, the Hospital Founder--Sir John Barnard, the "Great Commoner"--Sampson Gideon, the famous Jew Broker--Alexander Fordyce--A cruel Quaker Criticism--Stockbrokers and Longevity--The Stock Exchange in 1795--The Money Articles in the London Papers--The Case of Benjamin Walsh, M.P.--The De Berenger Conspiracy--Lord Cochrane unjustly accused--"Ticket Pocketing"--System of Business at the Stock Exchange--"Popgun John"--Nathan Rothschild--Secrecy of his Operations--Rothschild outdone by Stratagem--Grotesque Sketch of Rothschild--Abraham Goldsmid--Vicissitudes of the Stock Exchange--The Spanish Panic of 1835--The Railway Mania--Ricardo's Golden Rules--A Clerical Intruder in Capel Court--Amusements of Stockbrokers--Laws of the Stock Exchange--The Pigeon Express--The "Alley Man"--Purchase of Stock--Eminent Members of the Stock Exchange 473

CHAPTER XLII.

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.

The Greshams--Important Negotiations--Building of the Old Exchange--Queen Elizabeth visits it--Its Milliners' Shops--A Resort for Idlers--Access of Nuisances--The various Walks in the Exchange--Shakespeare's Visits to it--Precautions against Fire--Lady Gresham and the Council--The "Eye of London"--Contemporary Allusions--The Royal Exchange during the Plague and the Great Fire--Wren's Design for a New Royal Exchange--The Plan which was ultimately accepted--Addison and Steele upon the Exchange--The Shops of the Second Exchange 494

CHAPTER XLIII.

The Second Exchange on Fire--Chimes Extraordinary--Incidents of the Fire--Sale of Salvage--Designs for the New Building--Details of the Present Exchange--The Ambulatory, or Merchants' Walk--Royal Exchange Assurance Company--"Lloyd's"--Origin of "Lloyd's"--Marine Assurance--Benevolent Contributions of "Lloyd's"--A "Good" and "Bad"