”The New Zealand Sharemarket”

Abstract

The need for a market exists whenever production of a commodity exceeds local consumption or when consumption wants to exceed local production. In the absence of a centralised market for wool, growers would be at the mercy of the travelling buyer whose idea of values would not be as sound as that of all buyers and sellers registered on the wool exchange where supply and demand are the determining factors. The raison d'être of a sharemarket follows in that a surplus of capital in the hands of some individuals, companies, or countries, makes the provision of a capital market essential. The Stock Exchange is part of such a market. All that is necessary is a sufficient quantity of stocks and shares and a sufficient number of investors and speculators, desirous of buying and selling this type of commodity - thus one has a sharemarket.