The 'bourse' at Paris is divided into two parts; the 'parquet' and the 'coulisse.'

The 'parquet' is the meeting of the official brokers (agents de change) whose number is limited by law to sixty. At 3 p.m., when the bourse closes, the quotations of the prices of public securities, of the foreign exchanges, and of bullion, are officially fixed by the parquet.

The ' coulisse' is an open market

French rentes, Italian rentes, and bank and railway shares are mostly negotiated in the ' parquet; ' all the other securities, such as Turkish, Russian, Spanish and United States are generally dealt in at the 'coulisse' (valeurs en banque). This custom is, however, not always strictly observed, and sometimes transactions in the same security take place in the parquet as well as in the coulisse.

The quotations are given both for cash and for the account.

The settlement takes place once a month in the French funds, the shares of the Bank of France, of the credit foncier and of the French railways; and twice a month for all the other securities.

The liquidation extends over five to six days, viz. as follows:

On the 15th or the 30th the declaration of options.

1st. Settlement of the French funds.

2nd and 16th. Settlement of all the other securities.

3rd and 17th. Days devoted to the office work of brokers.

4th and 18th. Payment by the clients to the brokers.

5th and 19th. Payment by the brokers to their clients.

If a Sunday or holiday intervenes the non completed part of the settlement is adjourned for a day.

The 'options' dealt in at Paris are only the 'simples primes,' i.e. contracts by which the buyer by paying fr. 0.25, fr. 0.50, fr. 1 or fr. 2 for each fr. 3, three per cent. French rentes or each 5 fr., five per cent. French or Italian rentes, or 5 fr., 10 fr., or 20 fr. for each share of obligation acquires the right of demanding delivery or stock at a certain price, or can withdraw from the contract by forfeiting the amount paid.

In Paris the securities which bear a fixed interest, are not, as in London, negotiated as stock (capital), but as rentes. In order to ascertain the amount of capital from a given amount of rentes, we have to multiply the latter by 100 and divide the product by the rate of interest the stock bears.

The capital expressed in pounds is therefore for the 3 per cent. rentes equal to 1 1/3 the amount of. the rentes in francs; for the 4 per cent. rentes equal to the amount of the francs in rentes; and for the 5 per cent. rentes equal to 4/5ths the amount of the rentes in francs.