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198 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
spicuously diminished in the last twenty years, tilJ
now it is quite obvious that the market is insignificant,
to a degree, compared with other markets on the Stock
Exchange.
5. The increase of savings bank money has taken
place very largely since 1895, when the annual addi-
tion to the deposits in ,the savings banks from being
about £4,000,000 to £5.000,000 suddenly went up to
over £10,000.000. And this,change is coincident with
a change in the relative prices of Consols and the
leading debenture stocks of railways, apparently in-
dicating that Consols during the last two or three
years have been subject to especial influences. A few
years ago the 3 per cent. Debenture Stock of the
London and North-Western Railway stood at 124,
while Consols. were at 114. Now .the 3 per cent.
Debenture Stocks of the London and North-Western
Railway are at I II, showing a loss of 13 points, while
Consols are about 110, showing a loss of four points
only. Consols have thus been sustained by a cause not
applicable to first-rate securities generally, and the
explanation, no doubt, is the application of the savings
bank money to investment in Consols.
As the whole result, we may say that Consols
during the last quarter of a century, and especially
during the last few years, have lost the characteristics
of a first-rate market for securities. They are of less
amount in themselves than they were; for various
reasons the whole amount is not upon the market at
all; and now the market is so small that there is no
free dealing in them, such as is necessary for a first-
class market. There is, in fact, what one may call a
corner in Consols, and as in all corners, the present
price is not a real indication of what the market would
be when natural conditions are restored.

In the circumstances we may expect, then, that if
there are large new issues, this will so alter the general
condition of Consols that the premium due to what we