Companies with large scale need a way to reach the savings of the public at large. The same problem, on a smaller scale, faces practically every company trying to develop new products and create new jobs. There can be little prospect of raising the sort of sums required from friends and people we know, and while banks may agree to provide short-term finance, they are generally unwilling to provide money on a permanent basis for long-term projects. So companies mm to the public, persuading people to lend them money, or take a share in the business in exchange for a share in future profits. Thus they do by issuing stocks and shares in the business through the Stock Exchange. By doing so they can put into circulation the savings of individuals both at home and abroad. When the saver needs his money back, he does not have to go to the company with whom he originally placed it. Instead, he sells his shares through a stockbroker to some other savers who is earnest to invest his money. A lot of the services needed both by industry and by each of us are provided by the Government or by local authorities. Without hospitals, roads, electricity, telephones, equipment and new development if they are to serve us properly, requiring more money than is raised through taxes alone. The government, local authorities, and nationalised industries therefore frequently need to borrow money to support major capital expenses, and they too, come to the Stock Exchange. There is hardly a man or woman in this country whose job or whose living standard does not rely on the ability of his or her employers to raise money to finance new development. In one way or another this new money must come from the savings of the country. The Stock Exchange exists to supply a channel through which these savings can reach those who need finance. Almost all companies involved in new production and development must _______.