A club, a select number of persons in the habit of meeting for the promotion of some common object, as social intercourse, literature, politics, etc. It is a peculiarly English institution, which can scarcely be said to have taken root in any other country except America. The coffee-houses of the 17th and 18th centuries are the best representatives of what is meant by a modern club, while the clubs of that time were commonly nothing but a kind of restaurants or taverns whero people resorted to take their meals. But while anybody was free to enter a coffeehouse, it wao absolutely necessary that a person should have been formally received as a member of a club, according to its regulations, before he was at liberty to enter it.
Among the earliest of the London clubs was the Kit-cat Club, formed in the reign of Queen Anne, among whoso forty members were dukes, earls, and the leading authors of tho day. Another club formed about the same time was the Beefsteak Club. Originally these two cluba had no pronounced political views, but in the end they began to occupy themselves with politics, the Kit-cat Club being Whig, and the Beefsteak Club Tory. Perhaps the most celebrated club of the 18th century was that which was first called The Club par excellence, and numbered among its members Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, Edward Gibbon, and others.
Clubs are often provided with reading-room and library, and formerly a smoking-room, billiard-room, coffee-room, dining-room, drawing-room, etc, and also may have a certain number of bed-rooms. Besides being convenient for social intercourse, members may obtain their meals in them, served in the best style and at moderate cost. New members are admitted by ballot, and pay a certain entrance fee as well as an annual subscription. Research Club
Par excellence is a disease of potatoes, first observed in Britain in a serious form in 1845. Usually the first sign of the disease is the appearance of brown patches upon the haulms and leaves. these spots appear about the time the plants attain their full growth, and when examined carefully are found to be surrounded by a ring of a paler colour. the whole of this ring is infested with a fungus (Peronospora infestans). Research Par Excellence
Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist. He was born in 1821 at Rouen and died in 1880.
He received his preliminary education at Rouen, afterwards going to Paris to study law; but he soon gave this up and devoted himself to literature. He first became famous in 1857 as the author of Madame Bovary, a realistic study of contemporary life. In 1858 he travelled in Tunisia, and four years later published the historical romance Salammbo, depicting the life and manners of ancient Carthage. L'Education Sentimentale (1869) was a return to the style of Madame Bovary. The phantasmagoria, La Tentation de SaintAntoine, and his play, Le Candidat, appeared in 1874. In 1877 he produced Trois Contes, a set of three historical romances, and was engaged upon another novel, Bouvard et Pecuchet, at his death in 1880. His posthumous works include: Lettres a George Sand (1884); Par les Champs et par les Greves (reminiscences of a tour in Brittany in 1847), etc.
He had an unusual writing style in that he insisted that every word should be the most apt and every phrase exact. This meant it often took him a week to write one page. Research Gustave Flaubert
John Law was an American banker. He was born in 1671 and died in 1729. He established a private bank in Paris in 1716. In 1718 his plan of a National Bank and an issue of paper money was adopted by the French regent. In 1719 depreciated national currency was received at its par value in payment for shares in John Law's scheme for colonizing the MississippiValley. Speculation and the inflated currency caused a panic in 1720. Research John Law
The PAR BF-1 Beija-Flor was a Brazilian two-seater side-by-side helicopter first flown in 1959. The BF-1 Beija-Flor was powered by a Continental E-225-8 six-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine providing a top speed of 150 kmh and a range of 270 km or endurance of three hours flying time. Research BF-1 Beija-Flor
A dividend is a distribution of part of the earnings of a company to its shareholders. The dividend is normally expressed as an amount per share on the par value of the share. Thus a 15% dividend on a œ1 share will pay 15p. However, investors are usually more interested in the dividend yield, i.e. the dividend expressed as a percentage of the share value; thus if the market value of these œ1 shares is now œ5, the dividend yield would be 1/5 × 15% = 3%. The size of the dividend payment is determined by the board of directors of a company, who must decide how much to pay out to shareholders and how much to retain in the business; these amounts may vary from year to year. In the UK it is usual for companies to pay a dividend every six months, the largest portion (the final dividend) being announced at the company's AGM together with the annual financial results. A smaller interim dividend usually accompanies the interim statement of the company's affairs, six months before the AGM. In the USA dividends are usually paid quarterly. Research Dividend
An exchange is a place in large commercial towns where merchants, agents, bankers, brokers, and others concerned in commercial affairs meet at certain times for the transaction of business. The institution of exchanges dates from the 16th century. They originated in the important trading cities of Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, from which last-named country they were introduced into England. In some exchanges only a special class of business is transacted, Thus there are stock exchanges, corn exchanges, coal exchanges, cotton exchanges, etc.
In commerce, exchange, is that species of transactions by which the debts of individuals residing at a distance are cancelled by order, draft, or bill of exchange, without the transmission of specie. Thus, a merchant in London who owes 1000 pounds worth of cotton goods in Glasgow, gives a bill or order for that amount which can be negotiated through banking agencies or otherwise against similar debts owing by other parties in Glasgow. who have payments to make in London. The creditor in Glasgow is thus paid by the debtor in Glasgow, and this contrivance obviates the expense and risk of transmitting money. The process of liquidating obligations between different nations is carried on in the same way by an exchange of foreign bills. When all the accounts of one country correspond in value with those of another, so that there is an even balance, the exchange between the countries will be at par, that is, the sum for which the bill is drawn in the one country will be the exact value of it in the other. Exchange is said to be at par when, for instance, a bill drawn in New York for the payment of 100 pounds sterling in London can be purchased there for 100 pounds. If it can be purchased for less, exchange is under par and is against London. If the purchaser is obliged to give more, exchange is above par and in favour of London. Although the thousand circumstances which incessantly affect the state of debt and credit prevent the ordinary course of exchange from being almost ever precisely at par, its fluctuations are confined within narrow limits, and if direct exchange is unfavourable between two countries this can often be obviated by the interposition of bills drawn on other countries where an opposite state of matters prevails. Research Exchange
The first law affecting the coinage of gold into lawful money in the United States was enacted on April the 2nd, 1792. By this law any person could have gold bullion converted into coin eleven parts pure to one part alloy. Its ratio to silver was fifteen to one, and gold coins were legal tender to any amount. In March, 1795, a charge of four cents per ounce was made for coining gold bullion below the standard. Under the law of April the 21st, 1800, a sum was retained for coining gold below the standard. On January the 18th, 1837, the standard gold coin was made nine-tenths pure and one-tenth alloy. On February the 21st, 1853, it was enacted that gold coins were to be exchanged for silver coins at par in sums not exceeding $100, and a charge of one-half per cent was made for refining. On February the 12th, 1873, it was enacted that one-fifth of one per cent was to be charged for coining standard gold. By the law of January the 14th, 1875, no charge was to be made for converting standard gold bullion into coin. Research Gold Laws
National banks are American commercial banks established by federal charter, which requires them to be members of the Federal Reserve System. The free banking system of the State of New York in 1838 gave all parties freedom to establish banks, and required securities to be deposited with the State for bank issues. In December, 1861, Secretary Chase recommended to Congress a similar system of national banks. He repeated this recommendation in 1862. The Act of February the 25th, 1863, authorized the free formation of banks, entitled to issue notes to the amount of ninety per cent of the par value of the United States bonds which each bank deposited with the Treasury Department. The system was to be supervised by an official called the comptroller of the currency. $300,000,000 of bank notes in all might be issued. A revised act was passed on June the 3rd, 1864. The Act of 1865 taxing State bank notes forced most of these to become national banks. The Act of 1870 increased the total amount of issue to $354,000,000. The system greatly benefited the Government in the placing of its bonds, and gave the country a superior system of banking, the Government guaranteeing the notes. By the end of the 19th century there were nearly 4000 national banks, with capital amounting to nearly $700,000,000, and deposits aggregating nearly $1,800,000,000. Research National banks
No-par-value (NPV) denotes a share issued by a company that has no par value. Dividends on such shares are quoted as an amount of money per share rather than as a percentage of the nominal price. No-par-value shares are not allowed by UK law but they are issued by some American and Canadian companies. Research No-Par-Value
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Club
