The Jobbing System of the London Stock Exchange: An Oral History
Ref.No.:39	Playback No.:

Interviewee's surname: Sergeant		Title: Sir
interviewee's forenames: Patrick John Rushton
Date of birth:  17 March 1924	Sex: Male

Date(s) of recording:  11 September 1990
Location of interview: Euromoney House, Playhouse Yard, EC4 
Name of interviewer: Bernard Attard 
Type of recorder: Marantz CP 430 
Total no. of tapes: 1	Speed:

Type of tape:  TDK AR 60 Noise reduction: DBX
Mono or stereo: Stereo      Original or copy: Copy
Additional material: Copyright/Clearance: CMH; I wish to limit public access to my contribution for 30 years. The material must not be attributed to me or used for publication for 30 years without my permission.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

Tape 1, Side 1

Birth in Kent in 1924; story of how becomes a journalist; joins Mullens as a blue button in 1946; description of his activities; lack of confidence in the Stock Exchange causes him to accept Oscar Hobson's offer in 1948 of a position on the News Chronicle; in 1952 joins the Daily Mail as Deputy City Editor; becomes City Editor in 1960; description of way in which Daily Mail collected information; Patrick Sergeant's job to get to know brokers and jobbers; power of the jobbers in the Stock Exchange; lack of competition for business; type of people who originally ran pension funds; shares dumped on pension funds; reasons for jobbers being powerful; lack of competition between jobbers; relationship with jobbers; Dick Wilkins; Sir Nigel Mordaunt; contrast between jobbers and brokers; Tom Leveson-Gower Lord  Glendyne [described here as a jobber, but in fact the senior partner of the gilt-edged broking firm R. Nivison & Co]; Hugh Merriman; jobbers were primarily traders; kind of information would get from a jobber; takeovers were almost always signalled to the market; the City lived on insider information; brokers made sure that the jobber didn't make a loss; reliability of jobbers as a source of information; recollections of takeovers, particularly connected with Sigmund Warburg; role of jobbers in a takeover; profit made a jobber tick; jobbers mainly want to build dealing capacity; decline of number of jobbing firms.

Tape 1, side 2

The different markets in the post-War Stock Exchange; impact of 1973 recession; criticism of Big Bang; bad image of the Stock Exchange; regret at abolition of single capacity; absence of contacts between jobbers and clients; changes in financial journalism since 1960; different approaches to collecting information; creates consternation by having lunch with Peter Thorneycroft, Chancellor of the Exchequer; companies develop public relations organisations for dealing with journalists/financial journalists who worked at the Daily Mail; problems of obtaining information from the City; role of the press in the circulation of information; the City relies on the journalists for information; value of experience with Mullens for Patrick Sergeant's future career.