The Wertpapiergesetz of 1896 and the reform of 1912

The law of 31 May 1896

The railway fever of around 1890 and the difficulties of the following years led to a revision of the Zurich exchange legislation. The centenary history devotes a chapter to “Die Börsenreform und das neue Börsengesetz von 1896”.¹ On 31 May 1896 the voters of the canton approved the “Gesetz über den gewerbsmässigen Verkehr mit Wertpapieren”, the law on professional dealing in securities, with 76.71 per cent of the vote and a turnout of 74.18 per cent.² The title marks a shift of emphasis. The law of 1883 had regulated the trades of brokers and agents. The law of 1896 regulated professional dealing in securities as a whole. Its scope thus extended from the persons active on the exchange to the activity itself, whether carried on in the ring or outside it.

The year 1896 was a year of exchange legislation in Europe. Germany enacted its Börsengesetz on 22 June 1896, a statute that was amended in 1908. One year later Basel adopted its law nationalising the exchange.³ The Zurich law must be seen in this context. Legislators across Europe were responding to the speculation of the early 1890s and to the public perception that exchanges served gamblers more than investors. Zurich chose a middle path. Its law widened the regulated field from the persons active on the exchange to securities dealing as a whole, while the canton, unlike Basel, did not nationalise the exchange.

The years that followed the law were not easy. The centenary history speaks of the “Schwierigkeiten der Jahrhundertwende” and of the exchange “bursting its narrow dress” (“Die Börse sprengt ihr enges Kleid”). The second heading points to the growth of trading after 1900, driven by the new supply of federal and cantonal bonds, the shares of the banks and finance companies and the foreign securities described above. The hall of 1880, generous as it had been, gradually became too small for the market. The move to a larger building would only take place in 1930.

The law of 22 December 1912

The final Zurich statute of the period was the “Gesetz betreffend den gewerbsmässigen Verkehr mit Wertpapieren” of 22 December 1912. The Zurich Bereinigungsgesetz of 1960, which cleaned up the cantonal statute book, still cites this law by its title and date and repealed its sections 25 to 29.⁴ The law of 1912 thus remained in force, in amended form, for decades and governed the Zurich exchange through the interwar period and beyond. The centenary history refers to it as the “Wertpapiergesetz von 1912” and treats it as the conclusion of the development that began with the construction of the exchange building.

One provision of the 1912 law had lasting consequences for the physical life of the exchange. As already noted, the canton was obliged to provide premises for the exchange for as long as it published official price lists, receiving fees from exchange trading in return. The arrangement bound the canton to the exchange as landlord, regulator and beneficiary of its revenues. It explains why the later exchange buildings on the Bleicherweg (1930) and at the Selnau (1992) were questions of cantonal policy as well as of private business. The obligation also expressed a conviction that ran through Zurich exchange law from 1883 to 1995: an official market with official prices was a public good whose existence the canton had a duty to secure.

Continuity of the cantonal model

Taken together, the three Zurich statutes of 1883, 1896 and 1912 built a coherent regulatory model. The first licensed the intermediaries, the second regulated professional dealing in securities and the third fixed the relationship between the canton and the exchange as an institution with official prices. Throughout the period, the private Effektenbörsenverein remained the operator of the market. This model remained in place, with amendments, until the federal Stock Exchange Act of 1995 replaced the cantonal laws, a process described in Part H of this book. The Historisches Lexikon dates the replacement of the cantonal laws by the federal securities law to 1997, the year in which the federal act took effect.⁵

Notes

1. Schmid and Meier, Die Geschichte der Zürcher Börse, table of contents, https://urn.ub.unibe.ch/urn:ch:slsp:zbz:991132393929705501:ihv:pdf. ↩
2. “Liste kantonaler Volksabstimmungen des Kantons Zürich”, Wikipedia (German), https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_kantonaler_Volksabstimmungen_des_Kantons_Z%C3%BCrich, entry for 31.05.1896. ↩
3. Wikisource, “Börsen und Börsengesetzgebung”, article by James Breit in Handbuch der Politik, vol. 2 (Berlin and Leipzig, 1914), https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/B%C3%B6rsen_und_B%C3%B6rsengesetzgebung, on the German Börsengesetz of 1896 and its amendment of 1908. On Basel, see Bauer, Die Basler Börse 1876–1976, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-0348-6298-1_5. ↩
4. Staatsarchiv des Kantons Zürich, Gesetz über die Aufhebung und Bereinigung von Gesetzen (Bereinigungsgesetz) of 4 September 1960, Art. III no. 17, https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/Dateien/105/D525083.pdf. ↩
5. HLS, Meyerhans, “Börsen”, http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/d/D13741.php. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.