Economics & Social Sciences
CASTAING, John.
The course of the exchange, and other things.
London, By John Castaing, Jun., at his office at Garraway's Coffee-house [bi-weekly, January-December] 1708. Single sheets, printed on one side as issued, each 210 x 80mm, occasionally trimmed closely with loss to issue number or imprint (10 laid down), issue 12 bound out of place, otherwise sheets bound together monthly in modern calf-backed marbled boards antique, red morocco lettering pieces gilt.
Originally issued from Jonathan's Coffee House by the elder John Castaing, a Huguenot stockbroker operating from Jonathan's Coffee House, these bi-weekly financial lists began, in 1698, the lineage that led, through his family and successors, directly to the present Stock Exchange daily list. Castaing died in 1707 and the list was carried on by his son, John Castaing Jr. The present set of lists comprises the new generation's first full year of publication, 1708. "Regularity, consistency, and accuracy characterized the newspaper from the start. As the original advertisement stated, it was published twice a week, on Tuesday and Fridays. This was the first London business newspaper to be published more than once a week. The days on which it was published were the days that the foreign mail was sent off from London ... What the subscribers got for their money changed hardly at all over the first hundred years of the newspapers existence. The Course of the Exchange, &c. was completely printed on one side of a small sheet of paper. Its size was the only thing about it to change; it increased by about fifty percent from 8cm x 25cm to 11cm x 29 cm. At the very top of the sheet the publishers printed the number of each issue within the annual series: at two per week, each year had one hundred and four issues numbered in succession ... It was the very model of regularity and propriety and, so this, no doubt helped to lend to that air of repectability that the stock brokers of London worked to attain in the eighteenth century" (McCusker and Gransteijn, The Beginnings of Commercial and Financial Journalism, pp.314-5). From its inception until the 3rd February 1711 the sheet was titled "The Course of the Exchange, and other things", as here, later it was known simply as "The Course of the Exchange, &c.". The first section of information gives currency exchange rates which relate to the cost of bills of exchange at various foreign towns, including Madrid, Leghorn, Lisbon, Antwerp and Dublin. The second section gives stock exchange prices including the Bank of England, East India Company and Million Lottery tickets. In the third various securities are listed which the Bank of England is prepared to give advances on, up to the listed amounts. The final section shows the amounts of currency "Coyn'd in the Tower last week", in gold and silver. Rare and significant, these small sheets, originally distributed by John Castaing amidst the chatter and bustle of Jonathan's Coffee House, appear to be the earliest printed record of the London Stock Exchange. ESTC P2157.
Price: £ 25000
US Dollar Price: $ 49570
Stock Number: 73225