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Martin's Boston Stock Market, Eighty-Eight Years From January, 1798, to January, 1886. Boston: Published by the Author, Joseph G. Martin

[Comprises a]nnual fluctuations of all public stocks and investment securities; government, state, city, bank, railroad shares and bonds; insurance, manufacturing, gas-light, mining, and miscellaneous, with the semi-annual dividends paid by each.

From the preface: 

The following pages have been compiled with the greatest care and research, with the view of producing a complete history of the Boston Stock and Money Markets….It is confidently believed that this work will supply the wants of a large class, comprising not only *capitalists* so termed, but a host of persons of smaller means, who seek out some of the various securities as an investment for their surplus means. The period included covers the great Bank Panic which commenced in 1837, failures, depressions of bank stock, with reduction of dividends, followed by the second panic in 1857, the depression and almost complete stagnation of 1861, the first year of the Rebellion, and again the panic of 1873, with the close approach to one in
1884.

Matters of historic value, in reference to the times passed through, are given in the first forty-one pages of the work, and cannot fail to be of value. Pages 42 to 60, under the heading of "The Course of the Boston Money Market," will be found of special interest, as in a great measure presenting a history of the times during the period covered; and for the sixteen years prior to 1886, the details are made very full, in view of the direct influence the condition of the finances always has upon the general prosperity of the country. On pages 120 to 122, under the head of "united States and State Securities," is presented and interesting record of the issues of government bonds, following which a full detail is given of the remarkable reduction in the enormous debts of the Rebellion, presenting a record unparalleled in any other country of the world.

From p. 36-37:

One of the most noted bank robberies in Boston was that of the Boylston, where $320,000 was secured, and this entirely the property of depositors; the bank not losing a dollar, its inside steel safe being unmolested. The burglars hired and adjoining room next to the safe, ostensibly for a "tonic medicine" department. Inside a neat little counting-room, and behind a secretary, was the board partition of the room. A trap-door cut through this, exposed a 20-inch brick wall, upon which the burglars worked steadily up to Saturday, Nov. 19, 1869. Between that time and Monday morning the work was finished; and the robbers had decamped with their booty, leaving numerous boxes labeled "Gray's Oriental Tonic," and carefully packed with "bricks and mortar." The bulk of the property taken was government bonds, these being considered the most easy of negotiation.

It is worthy to note, that, while prices of personal property were generally stimulated during the war, real estate remained unaffected almost to its close. When the paper dollar had fallen as low as forty cents, even houses and farms could be purchased on very nearly as favorable terms in this depreciated currency, as two or three years before with gold; or, to make it plainer, a person abroad, with his gold, could have invested here in real estate at an immense discount from former gold-values.

And…

Telegraphs and Railroads. - The closing-up of the war was marked by the completion of two great enterprises: the successful laying of working submarine telegraph cables between Europe and America, and the building of the Pacific Railroad, - both triumphs in their kind, the one of incalculable service to the world at large, and the other to the United States in particular. The railroad from Omaha to the Pacific, a distance of one thousand nine hundred miles, was completed in less than five years, -commenced the latter part of 1864, and the "last spike" driven May 10, 1869. It is a notable fact, that for some time only two subscribers to stock of the Central Pacific could be obtained in the city of San Francisco, and one of these was a woman; so doubtful was the venture considered in its conception.
 


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