The Jobbing System of the London Stock Exchange: An Oral History
Ref.No.: 26	Playback No.:

Interviewee's surname:	Jessep 	Title: Mr
Interviewee ' s forenames: Archie
Date of birth: 6 July 1913  Sex: Male 

Date(s) of recording: 30 May 1990
Location of interview: Home
Name of interviewer: Bernard Attard
Type of recorder: Marantz CP 430
Total no. of tapes: 2 Speed:
Type of tape:	TDK AR 60  Noise reduction:   DBX
Mono or stereo:	Stereo	Original or copy: Copy   
Additional material:
Copyright/Clearance: CMH; no restrictions (original: limiting public access for 10 years)

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

Tape 1, Side 1

Birth in West Ham; father a dealer on the Baltic Exchange; grandparents; education; through uncle, obtains a job as office boy with Smith Brothers; no ambitions to go onto Baltic Exchange; attracted to his job because of the opportunities to make money; description of the firm; recollections of Charlie Smith, Mr Kyle and Wood, a half-book man; the offices; firm only trading in the industrial market; nothing distinctive about the firm; relationship with country brokers; Archie Jesseps' progression from office boy to authorised clerk; happy in job with Smiths; early memories of the Stock Exchange; other jobbers in the industrial market; relationship with Barclays; effect of the Depression and the Hatry crash; learns dealing skills from Charlie Smith; Charlie Smith's qualities as a jobber; Smith's approach to jobbing; main competitors and relationship with small jobbers; Jewish firms in the Stock Exchange; anti-semitism; feelings when starts as a dealer; does not get paid by the firm during the War; effect of the War on the firm; marriage; starts to deal in stocks affected by rearmament; effect of a crisis on the Stock Exchange; deals in British stocks which are also traded on Wall Street; visits Wall Street; arbitrage brokers; shunters; relationship between one shunting firm and Smiths; Smiths' relationship with brokers; options dealing; position taking and contangos; jobbers used by brokers as a source of information; annual meeting between jobbers and the directors of ICI; when Smith starts dealing in gold stocks.

Tape 1, side 2

Smith Brothers originally called Smith & Cutler; Maurice Smith joins from Berger & Gosschalk and starts dealing in gold mining stocks; relationship with Charlie Smith; stocks that Archie Jessep dealt in; Smiths takes up leisure stocks after the War; boom in leisure stocks; annual lunch with Fred and Billie Butlin; jobbers not generally in contact with companies; information passed on to the market; service during the War; decision to job leisure shares after the War; Stock Exchange post-War; feelings about returning to the Stock Exchange; membership; partnership; always jobbed in the industrial market; markets very similar to each other; other jobbers in the industrial market; still a source of information; decline in business from country brokers; expansion of the firm; a typical "day; how decides what price to quote; amount of business Smiths was seeing; size of bargains; capital required to run a book; impact of institutions; increase in risk; importance of a jobber's 'smell'; carrying positions and undoing positions; clients getting several brokers to deal in the same stock; joint books; takeovers; buying a stock against the sale of another; price agreements; lunch during the working day; contacts with other jobbers.

Tape 2, side 1

Contraction in number of jobbing firms; reasons for Smiths' survival; retirement of the Smith brothers; approach to running the firm; relationship with brokers; put throughs; firm only deals in shares it is already dealing in; underwriting; changes in the Stock Exchange; trading on personal account; insider trading; shop brokers; contrast of the South African and the industrial markets; contacts with the gold mining companies; brokers always came to jobbers for information; speculative stocks, eg. GRA; differences between large and small brokers; price making; brokers with one order who would deal with several jobbers; knowing what other jobbers were making; did not try to cheat the broker; capital gains tax; number of jobbers dealing in a stock; responsibilities of a partner; flotation of the company; decision to retire; misses the comradeship of the Stock Exchange; qualities of a successful jobber; qualities of a bad jobber; would not have become a broker.

Tape 2, side 2

Many brokers wouldn't be able to stand the pressure of jobbing; difference in background between jobbers and brokers; honesty and fair play of the jobbing system/jobbing firms carry passengers; jobbing a risky business; increase in size of bargains and number of shares to deal in; decrease in the number of people dealing; would not have been able to do so well for himself in any other career; hard work the ingredient of his success.