Early regulation and social organisation on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, 1887–1892

Abstract

This article documents the early development of rules and social organisation of Africa’s oldest existing stock exchange. Founded in November 1887, a year after southern Africa’s most significant gold discoveries, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is analysed in the context of an emerging financial institution in a mineral-driven economy. Exposing underutilised primary material from the JSE and partner financial intermediaries, this investigation provides new details on the local, regional and global development of southern Africa’s capital market during the first age of financial globalisation. Confronted by an uncertain political environment and stakeholders advocating competing visions of corporate organisation, the first five years tested the JSE’s ability to balance the needs of regulation and promoting access to its capital market. The evidence shows that the JSE was not an isolated stock exchange in southern Africa, but an increasingly global institution attracting members and capital from beyond the South African Republic.