ABSTRACT
As has already been noted in the preceding chapters the membership of the provincial stock exchanges of England increased rapidly during the railway boom period. reaching a figure of well over 500 members in 1846. By 1850. however. the total membership of the surviving exchanges fell to just over 400.1 This reduction in membership over a comparatively short period was associated with the depressed state of the railway share market when a large number of "self commission men" retreated from the market. while a few members were also lost through being declared defaulters. By 1914 the total membership of the exchanges in England and Wales had increased to just over 550. but the increase occurred mainly at the end of the century. being associated with the boom in company promotion in the mid-1890s and the accompanying increase in share turnover. These changes were not uniform between markets. During this period Liverpool experienced a fall in membership. while Manchester increased from 76 in 1890 to 107 in 1901. Between 1890 and 1914 Birmingham trebled its membership. a development linked with the cycle boom of the mid-nineties and later the rise of the motor car industries. Sheffield doubled its membership over the same period. The middle years of the century were in comparison very unexciting probably because provincial markets did not participate to any considerable extent in the upsurge in foreign borrowing. The provinces got extra agency business and developed a few specialist lines in overseas stocks but the main markets in foreign loans centred on the London Stock Exchange. Provincial expansion occurred with the increase in company formation at local level during the last quarter of the century and the pre-war period. Thus they attained by 1914 a record membership of 559 and for most exchanges this was their high point; the only major exception was Birmingham which subsequently doubled its membership, a growth associated with the development of the newer industries of the Midlands in the inter-war years.
