Author

MORTIMER, Thomas.

Title

Every man his own broker:
or a guide to Exchange-Alley ...

Published, Date

London: S. Hooper,1765.

Description

Sixth edition, 12mo., xvii, [5], 196, [2], 46pp. (the supplemental table of interest has a continuous register but a separate title page, dated 1766), 2 leaves bound out of order, contemporary calf, covers with double gilt filets, spine in six compartments separated by raised bands with gilt rules, a very good copy.

Note

In her work From Coffee House to Cyber Market. Two Hundred Years of The London Stock Exchange, historian Elizabeth Hennessy outlines the importance of Mortimer's work: "One of the most knowledgeable and persistent critics of brokers' trade in securities was Thomas Mortimer whose book Every Man His Own Broker appeared in fourteen editions between 1761 and 1801, and was translated into German, Dutch, French and Italian. According to his own account he wrote because of an unhappy experience at Jonathan's in 1756, and the work is certainly hostile to jobbers and speculators; like many of his contemporaries he was deeply perturbed by what he saw as unnecessary trading in Government funds. However his detailed advice to the public on how to buy and sell successfully gives one of the best pictures of stock broking in the second half of the eighteenth century." This popular guide to dealing on the stock-market went through some thirteen editions between 1761 and 1810, four of which appeared in its first year of publication. "As the title suggests, the author's object was to encourage members of the public to buy and sell for themselves, without employing brokers. His attacks upon the brokers, though often amusing, are obviously exaggerated, but on technical matters he is accurate . . . Legally, only licensed brokers could deal on behalf of others, but there was nothing to prevent any members of the public from dealing on his own account" (Morgan & Thomas, p. 58). This is one of several practical works that Mortimer (1730-1810), who was British vice-consul to the Austrian Netherlands, wrote on finance and trade. Among the others was the Elements of Commerce, Politics and Finance (1772), which he accused Adam Smith of plagiarising.

References

Goldsmiths' 12333.

Stock Number

77844