An early history of the London Stock Exchange. John Francis (1810-1886) entered the Bank of England in 1833 and became chief accountant in 1870. In Chronicles and Characters of the Stock Exchange he paints a broad canvas of its history, with anecdotes from the various bubbles and manias, frauds and forgeries, and tales of the leading families, including the Rothschilds. The appendix lists useful trading information for the time.

The final 12 pages are given over to reviews of the work. Whilst The Economist simply 'received great pleasure from the perusal of the book', The Observer heeded 'It is easy to trace the decline and fall of commercial mortality' through Francis' words, and The Sunday Times noted that 'The work might have been properly called the Romance of Mammon'.

'New Edition' (i.e. third edition); 8vo (23 x 14.5 cm), appendix, 12pp. contemporary reviews to rear; later brown cloth, gilt spine, fore-edge uncut, water stain to head gutter margin pp.272-273, old partially erased annotations to head margins of preface and contents pages; xii, 360, xiipp.

Dennistoun 67.