188_ $10 American Exchange in Europe – Net Fine (Cancelled) – Mark Twain Yesterday’s Change, LLC. Outlet Online

The American Exchange in Europe, located in London, was a clubhouse, reading room, bank, steamship and railway agency and newspaper among its many other arms. In the late 1880s the company went bankrupt and, among its other investors, Mark Twain (who had invested $10,000 was interviewed regarding the company. He had this to say:

“I went into this thing on the representation that Gen. Hawley was the president of the exchange in every sense of the word. I bought $10,000 worth of the stock, and up to 1886 was well satisfied with the venture. Then, when no dividend was declared, I became a little alarmed, but I was assured by some of the directors, my personal friends, that the dividend had been passed in order to make some needed improvements in the London office. I was told that the 1887 dividend was passed in order to extend the arms of the exchange in European and Asiatic cities. This satisfied me, and I had no more doubt until the end of the year. Understand, I am no business man in any great way, but yet I had my eyes open, and I do not like this loaning of money to Barrett, Haverly, Stayner, Stevens and the others, but when I complained I was assured just the same as the other stockholders were, that these loans were well secured and sure in the end to net a handsome amount. But I was duped, and now that the crash has come I can easily see that the concern has been rotten for some months.”