ABSTRACT
The Exchange believed itself to be running a members' organisation with the narrow objectives of maximising members' business, and limiting members' counterparty risk. There is no evidence that the London Stock Exchange ever considered making such reports. Quite apart from the failure of the Stock Exchange rules to prevent the decline in the quality of new issues that occurred during the later 1920s, there were signs that public law generally was failing to deter abusive share promotion and selling activity. In the 1890s in England, this role had been taken by John Smith, the Inspector General of Companies Liquidation, who used his power to undertake public examinations of companies in liquidation to investigate company failures and reveal potential cases for prosecution. In England in the 1920s, there was no one with the missionary zeal in an official position with the necessary powers to act against company promoters and share-pushing fraud.
