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What is investment?
To appreciate fully what it means to be an investor, I ask you to imagine that you do not live in the twenty-first century, with its vast range of financial instruments. You live in a simpler time. You are a member of the Victorian middle class, and life has been good to you. A substantial nest-egg has been built up over the years, but you are dissatisfied with the 2 per cent annual return you are getting on it in the local bank.
A couple of acquaintances, Mr Stephenson and Mr Brunel, are enthusiasts for a revolutionary technology that will improve the lives of the British people tremendously: the railways. Although the social benefits are wonderful, and it gives Stephenson and Brunel a warm feeling to think that they ...
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