Every Man His Own Broker:

A scarce early guide to the London Stock Exchange which ran through fourteen editions between 1761 and 1801, and was translated into German, Dutch, French and Italian.

The author, Thomas Mortimer (1730-1810), had a brief diplomatic career as Vice-Consul to the Austrian Netherlands, but is otherwise known to us for his biographic history The British Plutarch published in 1762, and for his writings on trade and finance.

Mortimer was one of the most persistent critics of brokers' trade in securities, and according to his own account, 'wrote because of an unhappy experience at Jonathan's in 1756, and the work is certainly hostile to jobbers and speculators; like many of his contemporaries he was deeply perturbed by what he saw as unnecessary trading in Government funds. However his detailed advice to the public on how to buy and sell successfully gives one of the best pictures of stock broking in the second half of the eighteenth century' (Elizabeth Hennessy, From Coffee House to Cyber Market).

All early editions of this work are scarce, with ESTC recording 14 copies of this the ninth edition in institutional collections worldwide: 8 in the British Isles (BL, Edinburgh University Library, Worcester College, Oxford, Bodleian Library, 2 copies at Senate House Library, University of Manchester, and University of Bristol), 1 in Germany at SUB Göttingen, and 5 in North America (Colombia University, Duke University, 2 copies at the Baker Library, Harvard, and Library Company of Philadelphia).

Ninth edition; 8vo (17.5 x 11 cm); divisional title-page separating tables of interest to rear, pen inscriptions to verso of final f. of text and rear free endpaper, bookplate to front pastedown, slightly toned; contemporary sprinkled calf, rebacked, preserving original red morocco lettering-piece, very good; xxii, [2], 251, [1], 39, [1]pp.

ESTC T87038; Goldsmiths' 12333; Dennistoun 13; Elizabeth Hennessy, 'From Coffee House to Cyber Market. 200 Years of the London Stock Exchange', (London, Ebury Press, 2001).