ACCOUNT (through O. Fr. acont, Late Lat. comptum, cornputare, to calculate)

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 123 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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ACCOUNT (through O. Fr. acont, Late Lat. comptum, cornputare, to calculate) , counting, reckoning, especially of moneys paid and received, hence a statement made as to the receipt and payment of moneys; also any statement as to acts or con-duct, or quite simply any narrative report of events, &c. A further sense-development is that of esteem, consideration.
As a stock-exchange

term

TERM

" account " is used in several senses. (i) The periodical settlements occurring, in London, monthly for British government and a few other first-class securities, and fortnightly for all others. The

settlement

SETTLEMENT
SETTLEMENT, ACT OF

extends over four days in mining shares and three days in other securities. The first day is the carry-over, "

contango

CONTANGO

," or making-up, day, on which speculative commitments are carried over, or continued: that is, the bulls, who have bought stock for the rise, arrange the rate of

interest

INTEREST

that they have to give on their stock to a moneylender, or

bear

, who will pay for it or take it in for them; and the bears, who have sold for the fall, arrange the rate that they receive from the bulls or, if the stock is scarce and oversold, the backwardation or rate that they have to pay to holders of the stock who will lend it them to enable them to complete their bargains. On the second day, called ticket-day or name day, a ticket giving the name and address of the ultimate buyer and the firm which will pay for the stock is passed through the various intermediaries to the ultimate seller, so that the actual transfer of the stock can be made directly. In the mining market the passing of names takes two days. On the last day, account day, pay day or settling day, cheques are paid to meet speculative differences, or against the delivering of stock. (2) The period between two settlements. A nineteen-day account is one in which nineteen days elapse between one pay-day and another. (3) The volume or

condition

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

of commitments. A speculator is said to have a large account open when he has dealt heavily either for the rise or fall. A

bull

account exists in a stock or group of stocks when it or they have been bought for the rise by a large number of operators; in the contrary case, when there have been heavy sales for the fall, a

bear

account is developed.
ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL, formerly an officer in the

English

ENGLISH

Court

of Chancery, who received all moneys lodged in

court

, and by whom they were deposited in bank and disbursed. The office was abolished by the Chancery Funds Act 1872, and the duties transferred to the paymaster-general (q.v.).

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