The World’s First Stock Exchange
We are up to our necks in the financial markets these days, whether we like it or not. But how did we get here? Lodewijk Petram’s fascinating new book tells us. Back in the early seventeenth century, Amsterdam was in the process of growing from a regional market town into Europe’s dominant financial centre. It all started with the launch of the Dutch East India Company in 1602, which introduced easily transferable shares. Within days people were trading them, and soon they were engaged in a wide range of complex transactions, including forwards, futures, options and bear raids. By 1680 the techniques deployed in the Amsterdam market were as sophisticated as any today.
Non-FictionPrint
Original title
De bakermat van de beurs
Author
Lodewijk Petram
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Petram’s historical study is no dry summary of the facts. These are almost universal tales of greed, risk, riches, prosperity and disaster. What makes the book so relevant today is that Petram shows convincingly why excesses almost inevitably accompany the trade in stocks and shares.
De Standaard
The bewigged figures familiar to us from Rembrandt’s paintings are transformed into dealers of flesh and blood, sometimes cocky, sometimes magnanimous, often greedy and in some cases downright corrupt.
Management Team
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Lodewijk Petram
Lodewijk Petram studied economics and history at the University of Amsterdam, where he gained his doctorate in 2011 with a thesis on the stock market in seventeenth-century Amsterdam.