vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
A. vbl. sb. The business of a stock-jobber; buying and selling of stock as practised by a jobber; loosely, speculative dealing in stocks and shares.
Often with unfavorable implication of rash or dishonest speculation; esp. with reference to the abuses of the early 18th c., which led to condemnation by Act of Parliament (see quot. 1734).
1692. Motteux, Gentl. Jrnl., I. 12. The modern Trade, or rather Game, called Stock-Jobbing.
1694. J. Houghton, Collect. Improv. Husb., No. 97, ¶ 1. Joint Stocks, and of the various dealings therein, commonly called Stock-Jobbing.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Stock-jobbing, a sharp, cunning, cheating Trade of Buying and Selling Shares of Stock in East-India, Guinea and other Companies; also in the Bank, Exchequer, &c.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 114, ¶ 5. Usury, Stock-jobbing, Extortion and Oppression, have their Seed in the Dread of Want.
1734. Act 7 Geo. II., c. 8 § 1. The wicked, pernicious and destructive Practice of Stock-jobbing.
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Libr. (1892), II. iv. 117. The selfishness which degrades political warfare into a branch of stock-jobbing.
1888. E. J. Goodman, Too Curious, xii. All that has been said about stock-jobbing being morally as bad as betting on racehorses.
B. ppl. a. (and attrib. use of the vbl. sb.). That deals in stocks and shares; concerned with this business or traffic.
a. 1692. Pollexfen, Disc. Trade (1697), A 5 b. To advance Stocks, and Stock-Jobbing Trades.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, II. 324. So may your wise Stock-jobbing Crimp go on.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 77. All you have got for the present is a paper circulation, and a stock-jobbing constitution.
1823. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 321. Margate … is … thickly settled with stock-jobbing cuckolds at this time of the year.
1888. E. J. Goodman, Too Curious, xxii. This is really no stock-jobbing dodge, but a bonâ-fide thing.
