s take any balance that may be left. This is the
total of the money that has been received from the public when the
company was floated and put into the brewery plant, tied houses, or
other assets out of which the company makes its revenue.

These bonds and stocks and shares are the machinery of international
finance, by which moneylenders of one nation provide borrowers in others
with the wherewithal to carry out enterprises, or make payments for
which they have not cash available at home. It was shown in a previous
chapter that bills of exchange are a means by which the movements of
commodities from market to market are financed, and the gap in time is
bridged between production and consumption. Stock Exchange securities
are more permanent investments, put into industry for longer periods or
for all time. Midway between them are securities such as Treasury bills
with which Governments raise the wind for a time, pending the collection
of revenue, and the one or two years' notes with which American
railroads lately financed themselves for short periods, in the hope that
the conditions for an issue of bonds with longer periods to run, might
become more favourable.

So far we have only considered the machinery by which these securities
are created and issued to the public, but it must not be supposed that
investment is only possible when new securities are being offered. Many
investors have a prejudice against ever buying a new security,
preferring those which have a record and a history behind them, and
buying them in the market whenever they have money to invest. This
market is the Stock Exchange in which securities of all kinds and of all
countries are dealt in. Following the history of the Ruritanian loan,
we may suppose that it will be dealt in regularly in that section of the
Stock Exchange in which the loans of Foreign Governments are marketed.
Any original subscriber who wants to turn his bonds into money can do so
by instructing his broker to sell them; anyone who wants to do so can
acquire a holding in them by a purchase. The terms on which they will be
bought or sold will depend on the variations in the demand for, and
supply of, them. If a number of holders want to sell, either because
they want cash for other purposes, or because they are nervous about the
political outlook, or because they think that money is going to be
scarce and so there will be better opportunities for investment later
on, then the pric