The Birth of the Seattle Stock Exchange
Promoters establish a new financial hub on the corner of First and Spring, promising a 'pure' exchange for the benefit of the city rather than the few.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Within the next two or three weeks a stock exchange in full operation in Seattle will be realized. The management of the exchange has secured the large room on the southwest corner of First and Spring streets in the ground floor of the block and is fitting it up for the use of the financiers. There will be 50 stockholders in the exchange, and each will have one share of stock of a value of $100, and no shares of stock will be sold except to active business men of Seattle. The object in making this restriction is to have the exchange managed for the benefit of Seattle first, last and all the time, and forestall the charge that it is managed for the benefit of any clique or set. The company has been incorporated under the laws of the state, and the following officers have been elected: A. Corcoran, president and general manager; J. T. Ronald, vice president; D. H. McVeltand, secretary; I. L. Hursch, treasurer; and M. E. McManis, auditor. One feature of the scheme will be an examining board, and no stock will be listed until the board has passed on it. A fee of $50 will be charged for listing the stocks. Offices will be fitted up in the rooms for the brokers, and about eight of these will be fitted up in the building for brokers. These will be rented at auction.
“The object in making this restriction is to have the exchange managed for the benefit of Seattle first, last and all the time.”
The founding of a local stock exchange in 1899 reflects Seattle's long-standing desire to control its own capital and avoid the whims of Eastern financial cartels. Today, that same tension between local autonomy and the influence of distant venture capital or global corporations remains a central theme in Seattle’s economic and political identity.
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