In this first article, John gives a brief history of the London Stock Exchange. In future editions of the Tuxfordian he will explain in layman terms how anyone in this computer age can become an investor in the stock market and the different approaches that can be taken to building and protecting investments.

In 1698 John Castaing begins to issue "at this Office in Jonathan's Coffee-house" a list of stock and commodity prices called "The Course of the Exchange and other things". It is the earliest evidence of organised trading in marketable securities in London. In the same year, Stock Dealers are expelled from the Royal Exchange for rowdiness and start to operate in the streets and coffee houses nearby, in particular in Jonathan's Coffee House in Change Alley.

In 1720 the wave of speculation fever known as the "South Sea Bubble" bursts and in 1748 fire sweeps through Change Alley, destroying most of the coffee houses. They are subsequently rebuilt. In 1761 a group of 150 stockbrokers and jobbers form a club at Jonathan's to buy and sell shares and in 1773 the brokers erect their own building in Sweeting's Alley, with a dealing room on the ground floor and a coffee room above. Briefly known as "New Jonathan's", members soon change the name to "The Stock Exchange".

The first regional exchanges opened in 1836 in Manchester and Liverpool and in 1845 there was more speculative fever as "Railway mania" sweeps the country.

In 1972 her Majesty the Queen opens the Exchange's new 26-storey office block with its 23,000 sq ft trading floor and in 1986 deregulation occurs and trading moves from being conducted face-to-face on a market floor to being performed via computer and telephone from separate dealing rooms. This was known as "Big Bang" and it meant the ordinary investor could move in without having to use a broker or middleman for advice

visit John's website www.jgwalkersmith.co.uk for details of his latest book "Violets"