A Look at the Exchange

A Conspiracy of Paper, is set in London during the eighteenth-century. A mystery that weaves murder, money, companies fraud, and more in a high-risk game. The game - Change Alley - the place where stocks and securities are acquired and traded. The more I read, the more intrigued I am with this story line, a beautiful construction of words, history, a thrill and a way to learn about the world of finance. The main character in this story is a Jew by the name of Weaver - the name fits him well, since he weaves a web that could entangle him if does not watch what occurs carefully. As I have read, I realized how little I understood about the London Exchange, so I decided to research it some and see what I uncovered.

An important thing to understand from the beginning is the change on the view of money. "But it is not one hundred and fifty pounds in the way that this coin is one guinea. That note is merely the promise to pay one hundred and fifty pounds. It is nonnegotiable, and as it is signed to you, it is a promise to pay it to you. If you sign it to me, then the promise is to me. Unsigned, it should be difficult to get the promisers to agree to pay it. ' 'There you have the problem, my uncle said. For money in England is being replaced with the promise of money. We in business have long valued banknotes and paper money, because they allow for large sums to be conveyed with ease and relative safety. They have allowed for the flourishing of international commerce we see today. Yet for many men, there is something unsettling about the replacement of value with the promise of value. " (pg 129) To this day, there is change from true value to promise of value, paper is used as a monetary system. The change that had occurred from use of coins to primarily using paper is significant, especially on the Stock Exchange. This change allowed people to raise the value of a company when it was possible the company was not really worth that much. " But silver is silver. Coins are clipped because you take your silver to Spain or India or China and exchange it for something that you desire. You cannot do that with a banknote, because there is nothing to support the promise outside of its point of origin. Don't you see Weaver, these financial institutions are committed to divesting our money of value and replacing it with promises of value. For when they control the promise of value, they control all wealth itself. " (pg 168)

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