We are always hearing about how what happens on Wall Street somehow affects the lives of People all over the world. What is actually meant by “Wall Street,” and how can it influence the lives of millions of people?

Wall Street is literally a street in the lower part of New York City. On it or near it are concentrated the chief financial institutions of the United States.

Wall Street owes its name to Peter Stuyvesant who, in 1652, as Governor of the little Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, ordered a wall built there to protect the town from attacks by the English. After the Revolutionary War the government offices of the city, of the State of New York, and the United States were located there. President George Washington was inaugurated there in 1789, and the first United States Congress met there.

Today, “Wall Street” indicates the whole financial district, which actually extends several blocks north and south of the street, and also includes an area west of Broadway. In this section are found the headquarters of banks, insurance companies, railway companies, and big industrial corporations. It is also the home of the New York Stock Exchange, which is probably the single most important institution in all of Wall Street.

The securities of about 1,500 different companies producing many kinds of goods and services are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Within a few minutes after each sale of a stock is made, it is reported to brokerage firms all over the country. These offices receive the information by telegraph on the famous “ticker tape.”