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⁹ This is a theme which runs through Michie, London Stock Exchange; see, for example, pp. 96–7.

¹⁰ See Chambers, D. and Dimson, E., ‘IPO underpricing over the very long-run’, Journal of Finance, 64 (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for a discussion of this institutional environment in the long-run context of the twentieth century.

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³¹ In line with previous IPO studies, issues by firms already listed on another stock exchange, investment trusts, and introductions are excluded. Penny shares, or shares with an offer price of 2 shillings or less, are also excluded. Such issues were characteristic of speculative mining and rubber share counters. The Economist, 25 Jan. 1930, p. 180; Thomas, Finance of British Industry, p. 37.

³² After their merger in 1932 they became the Stock Exchange Official Year Book.

³³ Michie, London Stock Exchange, p. 284; ‘Company meetings: Ford Motor Company’, The Times, 19 March 1931, p. 21.

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³⁵ The Midland Bank Review estimated total new issue proceeds at £1,700 m. The difference is represented by SEO proceeds, which for reasons discussed above, I am unable to include in this sample.

³⁶ The Economist index of business activity fell by 35% between July 1920 and June 1921. The fact that the share price index did not show a similar sharp fall at this time reflects the lack of a pure ordinary share index series prior to the establishment of the Financial News 30 index in January 1930.

³⁷ There were only 38 common stock IPOs between 1934 and 1938. Gompers, P. and Lerner, J., ‘The really long-run performance of initial public offerings: the pre-Nasdaq evidence’, Journal of Finance, 58 (2003), p. 1360CrossRefGoogle Scholar, table 1.

³⁸ Any securities issued but not quoted are valued at par.

³⁹ Mowery and Rosenberg, Technology, ch. 4 and tables 4.2 to 4.5. Research intensity is defined as number of scientific personnel per 1,000 wage earners.

⁴⁰ As a further check, I made use of prospectus disclosure regarding whether a firm engaged in research and development activity. There were only 49 such firms in the sample, but these firms were highly correlated with the new manufacturing industrial classification.

⁴¹ I am grateful to Mike Staunton for providing this data.

⁴² The Companies Acts of 1900 and 1907 required public companies to publish a balance sheet. However, many companies only converted to public company status immediately prior to their IPO, and, therefore, would have escaped this requirement at IPO.

⁴³ See Henderson, R. F., The New Issue Market and The Finance of Industry (London, 1951), ch. 3Google Scholar and especially appendix A for a comparison of the three series.

⁴⁴ This approach follows Henderson, New Issue Market, in excluding long-term, but not short-term, debt repayment. Bank overdrafts represent short-term funding of capital expenditure in anticipation of the subsequent equity issue. However, overdrafts used to fund an acquisition are excluded.

⁴⁵ Macmillan, H., Report of the Committee on Finance and Industry, Cmnd. 3897 (London, 1931)Google Scholar, para. 404.

⁴⁶ Cairncross, A. K., Home and Foreign Investment 1870–1913 (Cambridge, 1953), p. 96Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ Midland Bank Review, January 1930 and January 1939.

⁴⁸ Henderson, New Issue Market, p. 35, table 4, and p. 37, table 6. In comparison, he estimated only 20% and 32% respectively of IPO proceeds to new money.

⁴⁹ Tew, B. and Henderson, R. F., Studies in Company Finance (Cambridge, 1959), p. 75Google Scholar, table 5.11.

⁵⁰ J. Corbett and T. Jenkinson analysed non-financial firms between 1970 and 1994, and reported similar results for the US. Their data are sourced from national income accounts, which prevents any attempt at comparing financing across industries. See Corbett, J. and Jenkinson, T., ‘How is investment financed? A study of Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States?’, Manchester School, 65 (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵¹ New money raised by the motor vehicle industry, includes aircraft IPOs since some firms, particularly parts manufacturing firms, participated in both markets.

⁵² Kennedy, W., Industrial Structure, Capital Markets, and the Origins of British Industrial Decline (Cambridge, 1987)Google Scholar.

⁵³ ‘The new issues market of 1928’, Economic Journal (December 1931). The sample included SEOs as well as IPOs.

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⁵⁷ Capie and Collins, ‘Banks, industry, and finance, 1880–1914’, table 3.1.

⁵⁸ Capie, F., ‘The British tariff and industrial protection in the 1930's’, Economic History Review, 31 (1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁶⁰ Richardson, Economic Recovery, p. 246.

⁶¹ For example, Eichengreen, ‘British economy’, pp. 339–40.

⁶² H. Mercer, ‘The evolution of government policy towards competition in private industry, 1940–1956’, unpublished PhD thesis (LSE, 1989), p. 91, table 4.

⁶³ Broadberry and Crafts, ‘Britain's productivity gap’.

⁶⁴ Kinross, J., Fifty Years in the City: Financing Small Business (London, 1982)Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ Samuel, H. B., Shareholders' Money: An Analysis of Certain Defects in Company Legislation with Proposals for Their Reform (London, 1933), pp. 64–6Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ Macmillan, H., Report of the Committee on Finance and Industry, Cmnd. 3897 (London, 1931)Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ ‘The Stock Exchange committee and the investor’, The Economist, 16 Aug. 1930, pp. 323–4. See also Michie, London Stock Exchange, p. 266, footnotes 82 and 83.

⁶⁸ Guildhall Library Archives: LSE, Minutes Committee for General Purposes, 6 January 1936 and 9 March 1936 (MS29760/02–18).

⁶⁹ Applications were either rejected outright or postponed until publication of the first set of accounts.

⁷⁰ There is no record of the total number of applications which would be a more appropriate denominator for estimating a rejection rate.

⁷¹ Rule 159 App. 34 Sch. II Pt. A.

⁷² Michie, London Stock Exchange, p. 416.

⁷³ Chambers and Dimson, ‘IPO underpricing’.

⁷⁴ In all, 128 start-ups went public between 1919 and 1938. I have excluded the 10 property development start-ups launched in the late 1950s and early 1960s.