There should be many readers, especially on the Opposition benches
of the House of Commons, for the sixth edition of the late Charles Duguid's How to Read the Money Article, revised by Mr. F. W. H. Caudwell (Effingham Wilson, 5s.). Duguid, the City editor of the,Daily Mail, was an able and honest journalist, and his lucid account of the elements of Stock Exchange business and the Money Market is the best thing of the kind that has been written since Bagehot's day: Anyone could understand it and everyone might profit by it. His candid chapter on prospectus notices and criticisms is as true now as it was when it was written nearly thirty years ago. How many readers understand that " a notice of a prospectus is not a recommendation to subscribe for the shares which are offered," and that it is a mere abstract of the promoters' statement ? The brief explanation of the money rates and the Bank return is specially to be commended at this moment when so many people fail to understand the sterling position. Mr. Caudwell has perfoiriied the delicate task of revision very carefully on the whole. But he has forgotten on p. 41 that the Uruguay exchange is now quoted in pence to the dollar and not to the peso. " Montevideo 39i," moreover, is unhappily an out-of-date quotation ; the exchange is now about 22. However, Duguid himself disclaimed financial omniscience and his editor may be excused for one slip. Perhaps he was thinking of the Argentine exchange.
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