Outside the stately Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) at 7 Lyons Range, row after row of closely packed, ramshackle cubicles buzz with activity. Hundreds of operators, all clad in white dhoti-kurtas, sit on gaddi mats, each frantically calling out numbers and talking on several phones at once. What takes place along this narrow street is just as important as what happens inside the CSE building, as these brokers are as knowledgeable as any about market trends and moves made by large companies. Even the reality of a burgeoning culture of online trading has not cut into this flourishing trading, which has long been a part of the CSE's distinct identity and history.
Share trading in colonial Calcutta actually began seven decades before the establishment of the CSE. Already by the late 1850s, share traders had begun trading under a neem tree in the area then known as New China Bazaar. Transactions could not continue for long under the now-historic neem, however, as the tree itself was felled by Chartered Bank, which set up its building there in 1905. Soon thereafter, the CSE was formally established in 1908, thus becoming one of the oldest stock exchanges in Asia.
After the CSE was established, share operators and founders leased a hall and lawn space at 9 New China Bazaar Street, a stone's throw from the present CSE hall. Babu Buldeo Dass Dudhwala, a key player in conceptualising the Exchange, then leased the first and mezzanine floors of a new house at 2 China Bazaar Street for 20 years, paying INR 1080 per month in rent out of his own pocket. Later, in June 1928, the CSE moved to its present home on Lyons Range, named after the building's architect, Sir Thomas Lyon, where it has remained ever since.
Scrips – a term used to describe any replacement for currency – first came to be used in India with the enactment of the Company Act of 1850. This Act introduced the concept of 'limited liability', whereby an individual's exposure is limited to the extent of his investment; share trading thus became protected, and gained popularity. When the CSE first opened its doors, 50 Indians, who were then the main brokers, called the shots in Calcutta, along with four European players. Soon after it raised its shutters in 1908, the bullish market weakened, largely due to the increasing likelihood of war in Europe; over the course of the following year, the CSE was on the verge of liquidation. By 1915, however, confidence in the market returned in full force, ironically in sync with the disruptions of World War I. Considering the large amounts of materials and funds required for the war, the opportunities for profit-making were great.