Again, Seat

Last week Carroll S. Bayne, Manhattan broker, paid $230,000 for a seat on the New York Stock Exchange--new high price record.

In 1791 just after the new United States of America had fairly started on its history, stockbrokers met under a buttonwood tree at No. 68 Wall St. When the weather was good they swapped securities and stories and breathed the fresh air from New York Harbor. When it was bad they met in nearby coffee taverns. By 1817 public participation in corporate enterprises had grown to the point where the brokers found it expedient to rent the front room on the second floor of the house of one George F. Vaupell at No. 40 Wall St. It cost $200 but this included fire, chairs and ordering the room when necessary.

Perhaps Master Vaupell did not sweep conscientiously, because subsequent records show the New York Stock Exchange wandering the Wall St. district, occupying now a tavern hall, another time a hay loft or a rented room, until 1842 when they hired a large hall on the present site of the National City Bank. About this time, the first great expansion in security values started with the de-velopment of the railroads. Strange stories were told of men who had bought stock in one of those steam engines and, without shoveling a coal, or nailing a tie, or laying a rail, had grown fabulously wealthy.

About 1820, becoming a member of the stock exchange meant an initiation fee of $25. By the end of the Civil War the initiation was $3,000. By 1869 membership was bought at the market price of a seat (there were 1,060 in all). The first year this went into effect the price of seats jumped from $3,000 to $7,500. In 1879 the number of seats was raised to 1,100, as at present. Since then there has been only the vast increase in security values and public participation to account for the rise in seat prices, which have mounted as follows:

July, 1925 $116,000

Dec., 1925 $152,000

Dec., 1926 $170,000

May, 1927 $210,000

June, 1927 $220,000

Sept., 1927 $230,000