Acknowledgements Introduction Part 1: England and Wales 1. The Origins of the Provincial Stock Exchanges Liverpool and Manchester 2. The Railway Share Market in the Provinces 3. The Formation of the Remaining Stock Exchanges 4. The Organization of the Provincial Stock Exchanges in the Nineteenth Century 5. Some Domestic Matters 6. Industrial Shares in the Provinces to 1914 7. The Oldham Stock Exchange and the 'Limiteds' 8. Gilt Edged, Local Authority, and Foreign Stocks 9. The Formation of the Council of Associated Stock Exchanges, 18901914 10. The Council of Associated Stock Exchanges, 19141960 11. Organization of the Provincial Stock Exchanges, 19141960 12 The Industrial Share Market in the Provinces since 1918 13. Federation and Regionalization Part 2: Scotland 14. The Scottish Stock Exchanges Postscript Appendix: Stock Exchange Records Index
First Published in 2005. The provincial stock exchanges have long been an area of considerable neglect in the study of the history of finance and investment. They have always been dwarfed by the London Stock Exchange, but at least from 1836 onwards it was not the only market in the country. Those who have traced the development of the English capital market have been careful to point to the importance of provincial capital in railway promotion, yet while the role of provincial capital was emphasized, the praises of the 'vehicle' which helped to mobilize such funds went unsaid. It is difficult to see how provincial investors would have been prepared to commit so much of their capital resources for such purposes without some assurance of being able to liquidate their holdings fairly speedily, since for most of them London was at some distance. This book is an attempt to fill a gapto trace the origins of the provincial investment 'vehicle' and its progress to the present day.W.A. Thomas Depalc0