So much for the proprietary of the Stock Exchange. Let us turn to the members, those who actually deal in the market. Their number is now about 5,000, and they are assisted by some 2,500 clerks, who also have the privilege of entering the Stock Exchange. In spite of appearances, no member of the Stock Exchange is a foreigner. Unless born a Briton, he must have resided in this country for at least seven years, and must have been naturalised for at least two years. For some years a rule was in force that before a candidate could be elected a member, he must serve at least two years' apprenticeship as a clerk in the House. This was one means by which it was attempted to limit the number of members at a time when the Managers were at their wits' end to find accommodation. The existing members, of course, welcomed the restriction, as it meant a limitation of competition; and, on the other hand, this limitation can hardly be said to have been a hardship for the public, for the number of members was by no means small, and certainly no one who desired to enter into a Stock Exchange transaction could ever fear that he would fail to find a broker. Moreover, the restriction was very desirable, inasmuch as it kept out of the Stock Exchange those adventurers who, possessing some money, or next to none, sought membership to provide facilities for gambling, just as they might seek membership of a baccarat club. Further, the business of a member of the Stock Exchange is one full of intricacy, of technicality, and of responsibility; and to enter upon it without some preliminary training, such as the couple of years' apprenticeship as a clerk affords, is to court disaster both for the adventurer and for those who may be involved in his transactions.

The apprenticeship qualification has now, however, been abolished as a necessary preliminary to membership, although four years' clerkship (with a minimum of three years in the House itself) enables a certain limited number of clerks each year to obtain membership on special terms, the number so admissible being fixed each year by the Committee. All other candidates have to comply with another formality designed to restrict the number of members, each of them having to obtain the nomination of a member retiring in his favour or of the legal representatives of a deceased member. Moreover, each clerk admitted a member on the special terms has now to buy one Stock Exchange share, and every other candidate has to buy three shares.

It goes without saying that in the admission of members account is taken of any previous business career that they may have had. No one is eligible for admission who has been more than once bankrupt or insolvent, and if he has once been proved insolvent, or has entered into any composition with his creditors, he must before admission have paid them in full and have obtained a complete discharge.

Then every applicant for membership, before his application can be considered, must be recommended by three guarantors, reduced to two in the case of candidates who have served as clerks in the House or Settling Room for four years, of which at least three must have been in the House. These guarantors must have themselves been members for not less than four years, and must engage to stand surety for their nominee in the amount of five hundred pounds each for a period of four years. They must have personal knowledge of the applicant whom they recommend, and of his past and present circumstances; and should he fail within the four years, they each hand the five hundred pounds over for the benefit of his creditors. No member is allowed to be surety for more than two new members, and, of course, any indemnification of the guarantors by the applicant for membership is out of the question. The guarantors have to state that they are not indemnified and that they do not expect to be. Should a guarantor receive indemnification subsequently, and the new member fail, the guarantor is compelled to hand over to the creditors the sum so received, as well as the amount of the surety. Every means is taken in this and other ways to make sure of the guarantors being independent of the new applicant.

Not only has the candidate for membership to find these sureties for the protection of his creditors, and as a guarantee of his status, but he has, of course, to pay an entrance fee and an annual subscription, all of which money is collected by the Managers for the benefit of the proprietors. The amount of these entrance fees and subscriptions is varied from time to time by the Managers; needless to say, the variation has always been in the nature of an increase. At present the entrance fee for a member is five hundred guineas, and the annual subscription is forty guineas.

As a matter of fact, every member is a new applicant for membership every year, although, of course, he finds sureties and pays an entrance fee only at the commencement of his Stock Exchange career. A little before the 25th of March, on which day the Stock Exchange year commences, he has to send in an application form for membership, on much the same lines as that which has to be signed by applicants for first admission. In the form of application with which he is provided, the new applicant has to declare that he seeks membership in accordance with the terms of the rules and regulations, and that he will be subject to them in all respects; he has to give his private and office address, and the names of his bankers, and he has to declare that he is not engaged in any business, except that connected with the Stock Exchange, and that he is in no way connected with any other institution in which dealings in stocks and shares are carried on. At times there has been protest against the stipulation that a member of the Stock Exchange shall not be connected with any other institution of the kind. There have been several movements for the formation of exchanges for mining share business, and even for the establishment of rival stock exchanges, and a year ago one of the great London newspapers established a system of direct dealing between its readers for nominal fees.

In the form of application for either admission or readmission, there must be stated the names of those whom the member proposes to employ as clerks, of which he is allowed a limited number. Of course, the clerks to whom reference is made are not mere office clerks in the ordinary acceptance of the term. Of these a member may naturally employ as many as he likes. But the Stock Exchange recognises a special grade of clerk, who is granted admission to the House, and provides a rather important element in its constitution. Each individual member may have five of these clerks, who are divided into three classes. He is permitted to have one who is called an authorised clerk, because he is authorised to transact business for his employer just in the same way as the employer himself would transact it. The authorised clerk pays an entrance fee of fifty guineas, and an annual subscription of thirty guineas. The member is permitted further to have two more, who are called unauthorised clerks, because they have no authority to deal, although they have the run of the House to convey messages and perform other similar services. These pay an entrance fee of ten guineas, and an annual subscription of the same amount. He is also permitted to have two Settling Room clerks, who, unlike the authorised and unauthorised clerks, have not the full run of the House, but only of the Settling Room, which they use in performing the routine work of checking bargains and carrying through the arrangements in connection with the settlement of transactions. They pay an annual subscription of eight guineas. It is permissible, therefore, for each individual member to have five clerks, and a firm consisting of more than one member is permitted to have nine—two authorised, three unauthorised, and four Settling Room clerks.

The limitation of clerks is another modern innovation in Stock Exchange history. Before March, 1902, the limitation was not nearly so strict, and the grade of clerk who is confined to the Settling Room, and had not the run of the whole House, was unknown. The innovation furnishes more evidence of the space difficulty with which the authorities of the Stock Exchange have to contend, and ocular evidence of the same difficulty is to be had by strangers in the vicinity of the Stock Exchange in the large number of young men wearing the blue badge, which denotes an unauthorised clerkship of the Stock Exchange, and the red badge, which denotes the Settling Room clerkship. The badge is imposed as a means of identification in connection with many complaints that arose as to clerks loitering about the already congested markets. They are badged and forbidden to loiter.

It is as one of these clerks that a candidate for membership can qualify for admission on the special terms we have indicated. If the applicant has served as a clerk for four years, with a minimum service in the House of three years, his entrance fee is 250 guineas instead of 500 guineas, his application requires the backing of only two guarantors instead of three, whilst the amount of each guarantee is only £300 instead of £500. As the total number of clerks employed is some 2,500, and as there are twice as many members, it is obvious that whilst some members and firms desire more assistance within the House, many do not exercise the privilege of employing any clerks at all.