大學英語綜合教程學生用書 Stocks and Shares
[00:00.00] Stocks and Shares
[00:04.10]In order to start a business
[00:08.33]a man must have to buy or rent factory or shop,
[00:14.71]to buy machinery and goods and to pay his workpeople.
[00:21.16]A man may sometimes be able himself
[00:26.20]to suppy all the money he needs for this;
[00:30.85]but often he cannot do so,
[00:35.60]and then he may ask others to help him by making contributions.
[00:42.06]Money supplied in this way is called capital,
[00:47.12]and the people who supply it to him become members of this company.
[00:53.66]Of course they hope,when they lend their money in this wasy,
[00:59.40]that the man's business will make a profit;
[01:04.16]and when the company does begin to make a profit
[01:09.49]they all share in its profits-
[01:14.14]and the share each one gets is in proportion
[01:19.57]to the amount of capital he has supplied.
[01:24.32]Thus if Smith has supplied 1000 and Jones 2000,
[01:32.79]Jones's share of the profits will be twice as big as Smith's share.
[01:40.44]Another way fo saying that Smith and Jones
[01:45.48]supplied money to found the company
[01:49.84]is to say that they bought so many shares in its profits.
[01:55.80]Shares are usually divided into units of 25p,50p and 1.
[02:04.55]Let us suppose that in this company they are in units of 1.
[02:11.29]As the company was just being founded it probably happened that with 1000
[02:19.62]Smith was also to buy 1000 shares.
[02:25.37]However,when a company has grown and prospered
[02:31.12]and people start to sell their shares to others who want to buy them.
[02:37.26]a 1 share often costs more than 1.
[02:43.32]This is because people have the great faith
[02:47.86]in the company and they think that,
[02:51.91]because the profits of the company are likely to increase,
[02:57.84]it will be worthwhile to pay more than 1 for a 1 share.
[03:05.31]On the other hand ,if a company is not doing very well
[03:11.45]its shares may sell for their stated value-or very near it
[03:18.32]-and if it is doing badly
[03:22.27]its shares will sell for less than the stated value.
[03:27.80]It is obvious that people supply money to a company
[03:34.44]because they think it will take profits.
[03:39.59]These are paid out to shareholders at least once a year
[03:46.12]and are called dividends.
[03:50.27]If the company is doing well it may pay a divedent of,
[03:56.72]say,10p for every 1 share.
[04:02.47]This is often expressed not in pence per pound
[04:08.61]but as a percentage-in this case it would be 10%.
[04:15.37]The government-which also wants to borrow money from the public
[04:21.62]-almost always does so.
[04:25.38]Government stocks are called"gilt-edged",originally
[04:31.41]because the certificate on which the loan
[04:36.06]was recorded had a gold edge like those found on the pages of old books.
[04:44.21]Later the term"gilt-edged"came to have a wider meaning,
[04:51.16]standing for safety and security,
[04:56.10]the government being the one institution
[05:01.06]that would never fail to pay its debts.
[05:06.02]Normally the government promises to repay the money borrowed
[05:12.97]within or at a certain specified time.
[05:19.11]This often to applies to other kinds of stock,
[05:24.18]but hardly ever to shares.
