The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-06-05 00:00:00

CORRESPOiVDENCE.

SHARE BROKERS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Sits,—As you have allowed the Liverpool Standard to become
the medium of a file, because untrue, and an unwarrantable,
because not substantiated, attack on a body of men individually
and collectively as honourable, as intelligent, and embracing as
lunch integrity at any association in the kingdom in proportion
to its extent; fair play demands that you permit the same organ
to become the corrective of an impression which the commu-
nication of your correspOndent of Friday last might by possi-
bility produce, if allowed to pass current without contradiction.
Who the writer is, it might, perhaps, not be difficult to ascer-
tain, if the object were worth the trouble; but whether he be a
Hebrew principal, smarting under the recoil of his own irregu-
larity and want of punctuality, or an unsuccessful candidate for
admission into that association which he has so grossly ma-
ligned, either as matter of irriportance only, as it would supply
the key to unravel the motive and display the animus which go-
vern the author and originate the slander.
The good taste of the writer is on a par with his facts—both
are alike defective—the former is manifested in the uncalled for
and unnecessary use of the term " upstart fraternity," as ap-
plied, I apprehend (if it have any application at all) to mem-
bers of the Stock Exchange, who have recently become such;
and the latter, in the false and sweeping declaration that "it is
no uncommon thing to see one of those transfermen transferred
to the care arid keeping of a sheriff's officer."
In the eyes then of this Solon in commercial ethics, it is a
crime of the first magnitude to couple the business of a share
broker with that of any other in which the "upstart fraternity"
may have been previously engaged, though it were only to
transact the business and further the interests of the "share
dealer" hini§elf; and an unwarrantable piece of presumption
for any man or set of men to meet, or endeavour to meet, the
exigencies of a new state of things; and this, I suppose, because
their individual interests are implicated in receiving the quid
pro quo of a commission for services performed and risks incur-
red. Truly, we live in strange times; a stranger still will be
those times when such philosophy as this shall find an approving
echo in the public voice.
That there has not been a sufficient or satisfactory observance
of punctuality in making payments for stock sold and delivered
is a charge that may be, and I believe is, to some extent true.
This I shall neither attempt to justify nor palliate, not even on
the.. customary ground of the difficulty which all who are con-
versant with mercantile matters know to be inseparable from
pecuniary arrangements; but admitting the existence of the
fact—to whom I ask is the delay attributable, but in nine in-
stances out of ten, to the "share dealer" himself, who hesitates
not to enter into a purchase of stock when lit:, is probably de-
pendent for payment on a contingency that may be procrasti-
nated beyond all calculation on his part at the time of entering
into the contract—a circumstance that will necessarily revert
disappointment to -the seller, carrying in its train the concomi-
tants of chagrin and dissatisfaction to all parties concerned.
To the flagitious and libellous part of your correspondents
letter, however, I feel myself called upon to give a direct con-
tradiction. He asserts an audacious and gratuitous untruth
when he states that "the arrest of a share broker is na uncommon
thing." It is on the contrary so uncommon "a thing," that I
and many others, members of the maligned body, were perfectly
unconscious of its having occurred at all, until the " Share-
dealer's" accusation induced the institution of an inquiry, which
resulted in a rumour only, that something of the kind had occur-
red to an individual, whose visits to the Stock Exchange are,
and have been, so few and far between, and whose intercommu-
nication with its members so rare, as scarcely to warrant the
assumption on his part of the rights of membership. But sup-
posing for argument's sake that the instance of arrest, instead
of being solitary had been triplicated; what then does it justify
so unqualified an imputation as that made by this " Shnre-
dealer," that such things are not uncommon? As well might
the crime of bankruptcy, if it be one, be levelled against the
whole of our high-principled merchants, who require neither
vindication nor eulogy at my hands, because some small fraction
of their body had unfortunately found its way into the Gazette.
The mode of placing that circumstance before the public is re-
prehensible in the extreme, it is illogical and does little credit
either to the impartiality or the heart of the promulgater.
" The " Share-dealer" asserts on his own experience, that be
has not only "had to wait for months for the payment of
stock," but has further been compelled to resort to legal mea-
sures to enforce it ;—which may be true—but the corollory of
that I should take to be, some defect in the title given by the
seller. This then becomes the exception, and not, as your
correspondent would ungratefully insinuate, the rule. His
other charge, of " brokers reaping the interest of their princi-
pal's money" is another gratuitous assertion of an untruth, and
ought not to be dignified by a confutation.
This suggestion, " not to part with your money until value be
received," is excellent advice if it could be pursued; it is a
theory that looks well upon paper, but in practice would be
found by no means facile of accomplishment.. Suppose the
case of a broker working a transaction between two refractory,
or, if you prefer it, timid !principals, the one a Liverpool, the
other a London resident, the one refusing to part with his
money until he has received the stock, and ascertained that the
transfer documents are regular and complete, the other adopt-
ing " Share-dealer's" suggestion, equally firm in his refusal to
part with the stock before receiving the money; in what posi-
tion would the whole party, broker and principals, be placed:
why the two latter must submit to the circumlocution and ex-
pense of a journey of a hundred miles, and meet each other at
Birmingham, half way, to ratify a transaction that might be at
once completed by the selection of a broker, in whom confi-
dence might and ought to be placed. This selection of such a
broker, notwithstanding " Share-dealer's" base 'insinuation to
the contrary, would be no herculean labour; there are many,
very many such to be found in the share brokers' association—
if not, quite sure am I that they will not be found out of it.
This, I say, without even the slightest intention or wish to
derogate from the respectability of those brokers who do not
belong to it; and, however strongly "Share-dealer" may re-
commend a secession from that association, I take leave to tell
him that it possesses advantages for principals that are neither
to be found outside its pale, nor to be affected by the flimsy
tissue of impeachment, which your correspondent, in his
temerity, has ventured to make. This, if be be what he repre-
sents h itself to be—a " Share-dealer," and not a broker, he
must know full well—but if, as may be fairly suspected, he be
an outside broker writhing under the defeat of rejection, his op-
position is at once accounted for—his malignity, is unmasked,
and the rancorous virulence of his attack, will pass'for just that
it is worth, NOTHING.
Liverpool, Ist June, 1838.