ABSTRACT

It is in the nature of free trade, that whatever mathematical advantage is to be obtained at all is more accessible to the rich speculator than to the poor one. Very large amounts of money are known to have been made in 1870, 1871, and 1872, in English railway, and also in various other stocks, in this way in the London market, when money was poured in from France and the Continent generally, on the outbreak of the Franco-German war. The marked difference between Stock Exchange business and other kinds is, that it is the custom to pay cash for all bargains when the settlement takes place. A supply of ready money is essential to the speculator in all markets, and it is marvellous that there can be so many persons who have to grope their way by the aid of bitter experience through the thick darkness of their ignorance to such a shining light of truth as this.