Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-18

enough to see that the exchange of money
| was bound to be power in the world
Wmcn even enormous armies could not
| hight against. The place had before been
| occupied by nuns who bore the name of
Daughters of Saint Thomas Aquinas. The
revolution swept them clean from the face
| OF the earth, and the money changers took
their place and have held it ever since.
Soon the Paris bourse took definite
rank among the nations. 1t became the
great exchange between countries having
chleFy gold and those which abounded IT..
SILVER. This continued until the adoption
of the gold standard became fairly gen.
eral. under the leadership of Prince Bis
marck 1t is still a reason why France
LOOKS iavorably on the propositions of BIZ
meta.!ism But it is the curious anima-
ton OF the place, with its singular official
customs, which must most have struck
our ommiSSoners-Senator Woicott Cen
eral Payne and ex-Vice President Steven
soh-in their recent visits to Paris to urge
the French ito do something for silver"
mere is no more shouting than in Lon
con and New York, and no more horse
play, which breaks out wherever grown
men get excited together and allow the old
bo3lshnesS to burst forth. But the look of
the place, the division of the brokers, the
outdoor part of it. like the cafe life of
these eXteriorized Frenchmen. is novel and
at first sight, ID perfect riddle even to those
most Nersed in the menagerie ways of bulls
| anu bedI - al NOME
Only Sixty Real Brokers.
First of ALL as in almost everything in
| France, there is a government monopoly
at the Paris bourse. From the time of the
! lirst Napoleon only sixty men are ever
licensed to buy and sell stocks on the floor.
| They stand inside long space rallied in to
separate them from outside and unofficial
brokers, clerks and spectators. In the CEN
fhlr., &c
raining, against which these authorized
| agents bolster their backs and look calmly
out on their fellows when they have some
thing sell. ..,
The sixty men inside this "corbeilie," or
| l.;isket, are the Agents de Change of the
| Paris bourse. men holding an crucial posi-
| tlon to which they have attained with diff
liculty, only on condition of paying $780,
Ooo and more when a place becomes vacant
| ahd having fortune and experience " Inch
satisfies both the ,otuel members and the
| government Itself. The French Agent de
| Change IS. therefore, a different man from
| one VINO buys a seat in the London or New
iorN stock exchanges. He is alnos; a
government official he leans over the
| railing Which separates him from the out
aidt brokers, any one of whom may be
richer and engaged in far greater opera
! lions than himself.
These official agents nave clerk a
| piece, who arrives at the bourse Il half
| hour before the work of the day begins.
| The agents hours are strictly limited to
| the time between noon and ) o'clock. The
| Clerks at IL 30 transact the cash orders
which they have received, as the lofty dig
nifty of the agents permits them to deal
| only in operations On a time limit. The
| days average price is made up from the
accounts of these clerks.
| AS sixty men cannot do at this end of
| the nineteenth century what they were
| unable to 90 even at its beginning, there
| is great number of unofficial brokers to
| help them in handling the worlds stocks.
| These are not to be confounded with buck
! et-shop brokers: on the contrary, they are
! men of known position and in many cases
| of equal Importance with members of our
| own stock exchanges.
The Outside men.
They are divided intp three sets only
one of which is allowed to operate on the
| floor of the bourse, outside and to the
| left of the sacred railing reserved to the
| official agents. This constitutes the side
| market of French rentes or public funds.
| The remainder of these unofficial brokers
| are relegated to the outside porch, with
| a roof indeed. above their heads, but only
| the Cornthan columns to protect them
| from winds and drifting rain. There they
| form the two other recognized markets:
! and it is their noise and antics, seen across
the public place in front of the long steps
| of the bourse, which gives the first I'M
preston of the Paris money market.
| One group forms stock market in the
| promiscuous sense-that is, foreign public
funds and bonds, foreign bank stocks and
| a quantity of other stocks and bonds and
| new issues, many of which cannot be rec
| ognized by the official bourse. This mar
| ket subdyides itself into two bowling cir
| cles to the left of the portico. On the right
| is the rem aiming market. noiser st:ll-that
| of cash operations.
| All these non-official operators are called
| the "Coulisse" (slips), but not every one
| cot in them They
t;nct corporations, according to the market
| in which they deal, and are duly registered
| to facilitate the settling of their accounts.
| They have to make deposit of $1,000 to
| be registered in French funds, and $40 900
! to the general stock market, which is moth
| ing if taken as a guarantee for the vast
| operations many of them enter into.
| Where the Public Denls.
! These "couAssiers' have also their clerks
| running about with the little books on
which they mote hthe operations, and by
which disputes are settled. The clerks Of
| ten do all the work, for the wealthy side
broker may be far, too afraid of colds and
| sore threat to tnust himself TO the open
porch wherei every one shouts together
o. seems tor at least, to the puzzled on
locker 1t is. ne ,dless to say that the gen
eral public. when it desires to take flyer
at stocks, limits its dealings TO these brok-
| ers of the ptrch.
| But there is yet another important class
| of financial agents living by operations at
| the Paris bourse who are still far removed
from the discredit of the bucket shop
| They are called bankers" and 1t is their
business to pass orders on to the brokers,
whether among the sixty members or the
| coulissiers OF the porch; and they see to
| the execution Of the orde:s Tor their clients
They even require more ready capital than
| the side brokers. waose operations are
more purely speculative.
iIry fho ROW Oh
general agents or drummers among the
| clients tina. speculate in stocks They are
paid either by the 5Toker on the Iafter's
commission or by the client on his profits.
Some Of this latter class also are men of
independent fortune. with an established
custom.
1t would take an experienced eve to sem
| a1ate the crowd at the bcurse into al,
| these different class es. The official agents
| in their railing, are obvious enough ami
any man may go in ~ look at them. La
| dies must so up a staircase to an upper GAL
lcry, whence they can lock down; but the
| view has been obscured since the anarchist
| scares by wire netting stretched across to
prevent the throwing of bombs down on the
| heads of these rich '.prorrios." man NAV
| Also circulate freely On the porcb. al ha