ABSTRACT
At various times since the end of the First World War the share lists of the provincial stock exchanges have undergone certain bouts of contraction. The first of these occurred with the railway grouping of 1923, under the provisions of the 1921 Railway Act. This programme of amalgamation was largely inspired by the experience of unified working during the war which had brought greater efficiency and various operating economies. Under the Act “about six score companies have been turned into four companies”. These were the Great Western Railway (nominal capital £136.5 million), The Southern Railway (£145.0 million), the London and North Eastern Railway (£348.0 million), and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (£430.0 million). The advantages of the change to the shareholders were those of “comparative stability of prices and of readier marketability”. 1 However, as far as provincial stock exchange lists were concerned it meant a reduction in the range of railway shares they carried. For example, in the case of the Manchester Stock Exchange List the number was reduced from twenty-eight lines to seven. This of itself did not result in reduced market turnover but with subsequent public loss of interest in railway shares after the conversion and the gradual concentration of dealing in London, the former prominence of provincial railway markets, especially its shunting activity in debentures, gradually disappeared. As from January 1, 1948 the four main railway companies were vested in the British Transport Commission, along with several other quoted transport undertakings, and the shareholders received in compensation British Transport 3% Guaranteed Stock 1978–88. 2
