Not only has the candidate for membership to find these sureties for the protection of his creditors, and as a guarantee of his status, but he has, of course, to pay an entrance fee and an annual subscription, all of which money is collected by the Managers for the benefit of the proprietors. The amount of these entrance fees and subscriptions is varied from time to time by the Managers; needless to say, the variation has always been in the nature of an increase. At present the entrance fee for a member is five hundred guineas, and the annual subscription is forty guineas.

As a matter of fact, every member is a new applicant for membership every year, although, of course, he finds sureties and pays an entrance fee only at the commencement of his Stock Exchange career. A little before the 25th of March, on which day the Stock Exchange year commences, he has to send in an application form for membership, on much the same lines as that which has to be signed by applicants for first admission. In the form of application with which he is provided, the new applicant has to declare that he seeks membership in accordance with the terms of the rules and regulations, and that he will be subject to them in all respects; he has to give his private and office address, and the names of his bankers, and he has to declare that he is not engaged in any business, except that connected with the Stock Exchange, and that he is in no way connected with any other institution in which dealings in stocks and shares are carried on. At times there has been protest against the stipulation that a member of the Stock Exchange shall not be connected with any other institution of the kind. There have been several movements for the formation of exchanges for mining share business, and even for the establishment of rival stock exchanges, and a year ago one of the great London newspapers established a system of direct dealing between its readers for nominal fees.

In the form of application for either admission or readmission, there must be stated the names of those whom the member proposes to employ as clerks, of which he is allowed a limited number. Of course, the clerks to whom reference is made are not mere office clerks in the ordinary acceptance of the term. Of these a member may naturally employ as many as he likes. But the Stock Exchange recognises a special grade of clerk, who is granted admission to the House, and provides a rather important element in its constitution. Each individual member may have five of these clerks, who are divided into three classes. He is permitted to have one who is called an authorised clerk, because he is authorised to transact business for his employer just in the same way as the employer himself would transact it. The authorised clerk pays an entrance fee of fifty guineas, and an annual subscription of thirty guineas. The member is permitted further to have two more, who are called unauthorised clerks, because they have no authority to deal, although they have the run of the House to convey messages and perform other similar services. These pay an entrance fee of ten guineas, and an annual subscription of the same amount. He is also permitted to have two Settling Room clerks, who, unlike the authorised and unauthorised clerks, have not the full run of the House, but only of the Settling Room, which they use in performing the routine work of checking bargains and carrying through the arrangements in connection with the settlement of transactions. They pay an annual subscription of eight guineas. It is permissible, therefore, for each individual member to have five clerks, and a firm consisting of more than one member is permitted to have nine—two authorised, three unauthorised, and four Settling Room clerks.

The limitation of clerks is another modern innovation in Stock Exchange history. Before March, 1902, the limitation was not nearly so strict, and the grade of clerk who is confined to the Settling Room, and had not the run of the whole House, was unknown. The innovation furnishes more evidence of the space difficulty with which the authorities of the Stock Exchange have to contend, and ocular evidence of the same difficulty is to be had by strangers in the vicinity of the Stock Exchange in the large number of young men wearing the blue badge, which denotes an unauthorised clerkship of the Stock Exchange, and the red badge, which denotes the Settling Room clerkship. The badge is imposed as a means of identification in connection with many complaints that arose as to clerks loitering about the already congested markets. They are badged and forbidden to loiter.

It is as one of these clerks that a candidate for membership can qualify for admission on the special terms we have indicated. If the applicant has served as a clerk for four years, with a minimum service in the House of three years, his entrance fee is 250 guineas instead of 500 guineas, his application requires the backing of only two guarantors instead of three, whilst the amount of each guarantee is only £300 instead of £500. As the total number of clerks employed is some 2,500, and as there are twice as many members, it is obvious that whilst some members and firms desire more assistance within the House, many do not exercise the privilege of employing any clerks at all.

CHAPTER IV
THE COMMITTEE

Just as the interests of the proprietors of the Stock Exchange are in the hands of a body of Trustees and Managers, so are the interests of the members under the control of a Committee, which is called the Committee for General Purposes. The Managers provide and maintain the market-place, and thus make profit on the proprietors' capital; the Committee presides over the dealings in the market, and, of course, makes no profit in any way. It consists of thirty members, elected by ballot annually. Sometimes the election is exciting, when, for instance, the policy of the Committee on any point is questioned, but more usually it is a very formal affair. But exciting or formal, a few of the ballot-papers handed in by the members are, strange to say, always spoilt. The member of the Stock Exchange is prone to give vent to his feeling of admiration or indignation for the benefit of the scrutineers even at the expense of losing his votes altogether.

To be eligible for the office of Committeeman, one must have been a member for at least five years. The office is and always has been honorary, but now and again it is suggested that the Committee should consist, at least partly, of paid experts. Its duties are arduous, and it frequently has to settle points of the most delicate nature, whereas it is frequently complained that it does not consist of the best or most experienced members of the Stock Exchange, who do not see in the honour and dignity of the position sufficient inducement for the sacrifice of the time its duties involve. However, generally speaking, the members are held in high esteem, and seldom, indeed, does it occur that there is even an expression of disloyalty to the dictates of the Committee even on the part of those who most desire its reform.

It is questionable whether throughout the whole world any body of men so constituted is endowed with more important functions or with more arbitrary power. The Committee can make practically any additions to or alterations in the code of rules, which was originally based on the deed of settlement of the Stock Exchange. Those rules have become more drastic than the law of the land. Practices which would be perfectly legal, although not very reputable, constitute a contravention of the rules of the Stock Exchange which would bring dire consequences upon any member who indulged in them. Members have been expelled the House by the Committee under the rules for an offence of which the law of the land would not take cognisance. The rules of the Stock Exchange, as administered by the Committee, are a code of honour rather than a code of law.