William Fairman

History of Financial Advice Collection. First published in 1795, An Account of the Public Funds reached its seventh and final edition in 1824. William Fairman’s guide, originally entitled The Stocks Examined and Compared, marked something of a departure from Thomas Mortimer’s Every Man His Own Broker. Whereas Mortimer structured his manual around a series of themed but discursive chapters, laced with acidic observations about “the iniquitous art of stock-jobbing,” Fairman’s guide adopted a catalogue approach, providing a comprehensive survey of the various securities available to investors, with little in the way of direct opinion or advice. Though the model proved popular, superseding Mortimer’s manual which had its last edition in 1807, it did not adapt with the times. Although foreign loans were all the rage by the 1824 edition, it maintained its tight focus on British funds, with just a brief and dated coda on American stocks, a fact which may have contributed to the title’s demise.… (mehr)