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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Stock Exchange
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(London EC2) The institution through which all stocks and shares are traded in Britain. The first joint stock enterprise to be launched in London, with shares on offer to the public, was the Muscovy Company which in the 1550s established trade with Ivan the Terrible, the Russian tsar. By the late 17C brokers were dealing in stocks on a regular basis from *coffee houses; Jonathan's coffee house was their chief haunt and it was there that they first called themselves, in 1773, the Stock Exchange. In 1801 special premises were built on the site still occupied by the exchange (the present building dates from 1972).
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There has been a traditional distinction in the Stock Exchange between brokers (buying and selling for their clients, and taking a percentage as commission) and jobbers (trading in much larger quantities on their own account). This distinction, together with the system of minimum commissions, was among the restrictive practices swept away in 1986 in *Big Bang.
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