nance. Its geographical
location is in its favor. By noon the New York broker has full
information of the same day's transactions in London, Frankfort, and
Paris, and can shape his course in accordance with this knowledge, while
the European broker cannot profit by his knowledge of matters in New York
until the next day.

The Stock Exchange of New York numbers over 1000 members, and its
aggregate wealth is greater than that of any similar association in the
world. The par value of the annual sales made at the regular Boards and
"over the counter" is estimated at over $22,000,000,000 annually. The
par value of the authorized stocks, bonds, and Governments dealt in by
the regular Boards is more than $3,000,000,000, and this vast sum is
turned over and over many times during the year. The aggregate of the
brokers' commissions on the sales and purchases made by them is estimated
by competent authority at $43,750,000 annually. The bulk of this
enormous business is in the hands of about 400 houses.

"Out of all the incorporated banks in the United States, there are thirty
situated in Wall street and its neighborhood, whose office is not unlike
that of the heart in the economy of animal life. Although less than half
the full number of banks in the metropolis, these thirty have two-thirds
of the capital, and quite two-thirds of the circulation. By a provision
of statutory law, all outside National banks, numbering some 1600, are
allowed to keep one-half, and many three-fifths, of their reserve
balances in New York. In this way our great financial centre is rapidly
acquiring the function of a National clearing-house. These temporary
deposits bear a small interest, and are subject to be called for at a
day's notice. They can only be used, therefore, by the employing banks
on the same conditions. The stock market supplies these conditions.
Bonds and shares bought to-day and sold to-morrow, endowed with all the
properties of swift conversion, and held by men whose training has been
one of incessant grappling with the new and unexpected, are the only
class of property upon which money can safely be borrowed without a
protection against sudden demands. On these securities, therefore, the
down-town banks make call loans. The name implies the nature. The money
which the thirty receive from without, together with their own reserves,
is lent freely to stock-brokers, with the simple provision that it must
be returned immed