The price of seats on the New York Stock Exchange has made a new record with every successive sale in the past fortnight. In November the high price was $85,000, two weeks ago $88,000 was reached, and since then prices have climbed in $1,000 jumps in response to an unprecedented demand up to $93,000. At this rate the privilege of trading on the floor of the big marble building in Broad Street is worth to the 11,000 men who compose the Exchange membership the enormous total of $102,300,000.

Values fluctuate as do the prices of stocks, but the current price of a seat is usually a pretty good index of the condition of trade in Wall Street. Brokers are now predicting that the price will reach $100,000 before it goes any lower, and the hope seems reasonable. This year on Change is well under way to break all records. Already the bond transactions have passed the billion mark, totaling up to the close of business Saturday $1,012,526,420. In 1901 the great boom year, when seats sold as high as $82,000 a record never passed till a month ago, the bond transactions for twelve months were, in round numbers, $999,000,000. The total shares of stock sold in that year were 265,500,000. To date in 1905 the total is 255,727,154. What this enormous trading amounts to in cash values it is impossible to estimate because of the great fluctuations in stock prices and the fact that the actual market values differ so widely from par.

Even the par value of the year's sales cannot be more than roughly approximated. Half a dozen stocks at $50 par and Anaconda at $25 bring down the total which taking $100 as par, would make this year's transactions involve the staggering sum of $25,572,715,400. At the present price of seats a broker would have to make in commissions $4,650 annually above expenses to pay 5 per cent. on his capital. Of course the annual profits of 'Change houses run into tens and hundreds of thousands a year, but it would be difficult to hit upon a fair average by any comparison of the year's transactions with the number of members of the Exchange.

A very large percentage of the trading is for the accounts of members. This class of business pays a brokerage fee of only $2 a hundred shares, while the one eighth of 1 per cent, charged to outsiders for buying and selling amounts to $12.50 a hundred. Besides, there must be taken into account the transactions of "floor traders," brokers who buy and sell on the floor for their own account.

Even if an average profit could be arrived at, it would not be possible to strike a fair basis of division of the business on which to figure the value of a seat, for the transactions are far from being evenly distributed among the 1,100 members of the Exchange. In a market like that of the recent bull movement, which was largely built up by the operations of insiders, the bulk of the business was carried on by perhaps fifteen firms. It must also be remembered that not all of the members do business on 'Change. Such men as John D. Rockefeller and his brother William, the Goulds, Russell Sage, E. H. Harriman, and others of the heaviest operators never trade on the floor.

While the price of seats always rises with the increase of Stock Exchange trading, it suffers a corresponding decline when times are dull. In 1901, for instance, when the record price of $82,000 was established before the panic of May 9, a seat had sold in March at $51,000. By June the price was down to $70,000. Early the next year $80,000 was again the established price, but it didn't hold for long. March found sellers taking $70,000, and by June the price had dropped $5,000 lower. After the Summer months a rise set in again with the increase of business, and by November sales were made as high as $80,000. New York leads the country by an overwhelming margin in volume of Stock Exchange transactions, and a comparison of seat prices here, with those of other exchange centers, is interesting, but it is hardly a fair index of the relative volumes of business. Boston ranks second to New York, with seats valued at $30,000. In Philadelphia the last price paid was $12,000. The latest obtainable figures put Washington 'Change seats next at $10,000.Pittsburg and St. Louis values are $7,100 and $5,000, respectively. In Montreal, the centre of the Canadian securities market, the last price paid was $20,000.

In addition to the purchase of a seat, which is a transaction entirely between the retiring member and the prospective one, there remains the finality of election before the buyer can take his place on the floor. New members are carefully considered by the Committee on Admissions and the standard is kept very high. Once elected the new member pays his initiation fee of $1,000 and is then privileged to trade. No security is required other than the value of the broker's seat, which is sold out for the benefit of his creditors should he fail to meet his obligations.

In Paris membership in the Bourse is surrounded by a formidable barrier of legal requirements and heavy financial considerations. An "agent de change" must have a capital of nearly half a million to enter the close corporation of traders on the Bourse. In the first place he must be prepared to pay as much as $300,000 for his seat. The price is fixed by a committee of the Bourse, and though it, too, has its fluctuations 1,500,000 francs has been paid within a year. As the membership is limited to seventy seats are rarely in the market. In addition to paying his $300,000 the new member must satisfy the committee that he has sufficient capital; $100,000 is the requirement at present. Then he must deposit $40,000 security with the Bourse officials and half that amount with the Government. The customers of the "agent de change" are further safe-guarded by the law which makes all of the members of the Bourse jointly responsible for the contracts of the individuals. To protect itself under this heavy obligation the committee is empowered to inspect and supervise the books and business of every member.

The greatest stock market in the world, the London "House," requires less capital behind its members and gives the public fewer safeguards than either Paris or New York. The system there is clumsy and membership is limited only by the room. There are at present about 5,000 members, and more than half as many clerks, who, after four years of apprenticeship, are privileged to join the Exchange on payment of 250 guineas. An outsider buys his nomination for £100 and must also purchase three shares in the Stock Exchange, which are quoted at about £225 each. So the £775 plus an entrance fee of 500 guineas is the total cost of admission.