The oldest stock exchange in the world…
Did you ever think about such questions as when and where the first stock exchange appeared? It was very interesting for me to try to get to know of its story.
So, I’d like to impart this information to you. Predecessors to modern stock exchange were medieval fairs where people could buy or sell bills of exchange. First it was in France in 12th century. There appeared guys who managed and regulated the debts of agricultural communities on behalf of the banks. We could call them first brokers.
Venetian bankers began to trade in government securities in the middle of the 13th century. Later the Dutch started joint stock companies, which let shareholders invest in business ventures. Then the Dutch East India Company issued the first shares on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1611. It was the first company to issue stocks and bonds. And the Amsterdam Stock Exchange is the oldest stock exchange in the world that exists at present time.
Right up to 1913 the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was the universal exchange where traders sold and bought both goods and seсurities. Just here all methods of security trade (for example, term deals, options, carry-over deals, margin deals, etc.) came into the world.
The technique of security trade was similar to the technique of exchange trade of goods, but insensibly the specific rules of conduct were elaborated. The greatest complexity for traders was the prohibition, which was implemented in 1622, “not to make the air blue”.
At the begining the access to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was free; any trader had the right to to make bargain with anyone. Conclusion contract finished with the hand shake, which was one of the rules of the stock exchange.
As for stocks, only stocks of the first stock company in the Netherlands (Joint East India Company) circulated at the Stock Exchange.
The stock exchange based in Amsterdam merged on September 22, 2000 with the Brussels Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange to form Euronext, and is now known as Euronext Amsterdam.
The second according to the time of origing was the stock market of Great Britain. Exactly at the England territory made its appearance the first specialised exchange, when in 1773 London brokers rented a specil accommodation for their meetings. Membership at the stock exchange the same way as at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was free, anyone who wished were able to take part in trade, but he had to pay for it 6 pence per day.