ABSTRACT
The stock exchange is the market for securities. The prime consideration in the case of credit certificates is the amount of money they represent; money, or value of equal magnitude, has actually been lent and bears interest. The certificates circulate for a specified period of time and are withdrawn when the capital is repaid. The stock exchange constitutes the market for the traffic in money among the banks and the big capitalists. Bills usually bear the signature of one or other of the leading banks. The stock exchange and the banks are competitors in the bill market, and the development of the latter has actually cut into the business of the stock exchange. The bill of exchange represents a credit given by one productive capitalist to another in lieu of cash payment. The true sphere of stock exchange activity is as a market for titles to interest, or fictitious capital.
