ABSTRACT
IT has been seen that the Stock Exchange is a market, of which the wares are stocks and shares. There is some considerable difference, however, between stocks and shares, and there are various kinds of stocks and various kinds of shares. It may be interesting and profitable to inquire into the distinctions, to examine, in fact, with some detail the wares of the market. A stockholder is frequently called a shareholder even by the most precise, but, strictly speaking, the terms are not synonymous ; stocks are not shares. Stock is calculated by quantity and shares by number ; stock is capital in a lump, while shares are capital divided into equal parts; although the unit of stock is usually £100, any quantity, such as £218 13s. Id. worth, can, in the case of leading stocks, be bought, whilst shares, which are usually of the denomination of £1, £5, or £10, are indivisible, and can be dealt in only in multiples of their nominal value.
