Wall Street mornings began with the aroma of coffee. In the seventeenth century, coffeehouses became places in Britain where people obtained and shared information. After the first coffeehouse opened in Boston, they quickly became popular, serving as an important source of news alongside newspapers.
For eighteenth-century "brokers" who specialized in trading securities, drinking coffee was practically the same as going to the stock exchange, much like seventeenth-century Dutchmen trading tulip bulbs in taverns. The difference was that Tulip Mania really did involve trading tulip bulbs.
For people in the twenty-first century, the ringing of Wall Street's bell had long become commonplace. It not only signified the opening or closing of the market, but also things like the listing of new stocks. Yet in "ancient times," it also announced a ship's arrival in port. It meant not only that goods from Europe had arrived, but that news had reached the New World as well—at least before the Agamemnon laid cables across the seabed.
There was a term in coffeehouses called "matched trading," meaning transactions conducted between two or more brokers. A stock exchange was a place for "public" trading. It did not itself buy or sell securities, nor did it determine their prices; rather, it provided the venue and facilities for securities trading, along with management and service staff. But its most important role was supervision. First, securities had to be settled the next day. Second, it had to prevent under-the-table manipulation—in other words, prevent "matched trading" from artificially driving stock prices up or down. However, this was difficult to enforce, at least before Wall Street's second stock exchange was established.
One Tarot card was called The Magician. It represented creating something from nothing, and the purpose of matched trading was likewise to manufacture trading volume from nothing. It was generally