Monthly British Stock Price Index

This series was assembled by Tim Opler, Ohio State University and Allan
Timmerman, University of California-San Diego in 1989 using research at
the UCLA business library.

The series begins in 1820 and is based on Hayek's stock price index from
Gayer, Rostow and Schwartz (1954) until 1868. From then until 1921 the
data are from the London and Cambridge Economic Service publication
called The British Economy, Key Statistics. The market was closed in
WWI. Starting in 1921 the data are from Bankers Monthly. There are some
missing observations because issues of the magazine were not in the UCLA
library. From 1950-1962 the data are from Moodies index of 60
representative equities excluding mines and plantations.  This series is
a geometric mean of weekly quotes.  From 1963-1984 The Financial Times
actuaries index was used.  This is a value-weighted index of 500 shares.
The index is an arithmetic average of the share prices from each day.
After 1967 the data are from C.S.O. Economic Trends.