Stockbrokers
Stock-jobbing or broking was contemporaneous with the creation of our National Debt, in the reign of William III., 1695, and gave rise to that class of money-dealers who have the exclusive entrée to the Royal Exchange. “William,” says Mr. Francis, in his work on the Stock Exchange, “had already tried his power in the creation of a national debt: jobbing in the English funds and East India stock succeeded; and the Royal Exchange became what the Stock Exchange has been since 1700—the rendezvous of those who, having money, hoped to increase it, and of that yet more numerous and pretending class, who, having none themselves, try to gain it from those who have.”
In the course of the Session of 1771, a Bill was brought into the House of Commons, “for the more effectually preventing the infamous practice of Stock-jobbing.” It passed the committee, but was not further proceeded in.
Lord Chatham, in the previous year, 1770, had, in Parliament, denounced “the Monied Interest as a set of men in the City of London, who are known to live in riot and luxury upon the plunder of the ignorant, the innocent, the helpless. Whether they be the miserable jobbers of ’Change-alley, or the lofty Asiatic plunderers of Leadenhall-street, they are equally detestable.... By the monied interest I mean that blood-sucker, that muck-worm, which calls itself the friend of Government—that pretends to serve this or that administration, and may be purchased on the same terms by any administration—that advances money to Government, and takes special care of its own emoluments. Under this description I include the whole race of commissaries, jobbers, contractors, clothiers, and remitters.”
In the South Sea year, patriots were made or marred by jobbing: “from the Alley to the House,” said Walpole, “is like a path of ants.”
Yet, it is an established fact, that, abroad and at home, all parties having large financial operations, approach the London Stock Exchange with more confidence than any other money-market in the world.