The Telegraph and Stock Exchanges: How Innovations in Communications Technology Influenced Regional Exchanges in the United States, 1830–1860

This book chronicles the ascension of the New York Stock Exchange, detailing its remarkable rise to preeminence and its lasting impact on financial history.

In the 1830s, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston each had a stock exchange. These were the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and Boston Stock Exchange. As there was no reliable means of communicating between these cities in real time, each exchange served its local market. The 1840s brought an innovation in communications technology: the telegraph, which, in time, brought these exchanges into competition with each other.

Three previously independent stock markets became, in effect, a single market. If a security was listed on more than one exchange, potential buyers and sellers could choose the exchange on which to execute a trade in this security. This book details how the NYSE emerged as the winner of this competition. 

Chapters analyze key moments in history that made the NYSE a reliable location to trade securities that evoked regional and eventually national interest. This analysis is applied to the competition between (i) stock exchanges today; (ii) taxi ride-booking services such as Uber and Ola; (iii) restaurant to home, food delivery services, such a Zomato and Swiggy; and (iv) doorstep delivery services, such as Blinkit and Zepto.

The resulting book provides the untold history of the NYSE and its rise to preeminence in the American economy. 

Sonali Garg is an independent researcher based in New Delhi, India. She has worked as a regulator at the Competition Commission of India and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from The Ohio State University. Views expressed in the book are the author’s.