Whensday: 1602 world’s first stock exchange

In the Netherlands and Belgium, throughout Europe, the lottery is something that is well-known. In the Netherlands you can “play” with the other people on your street, joining in the postcode lottery. The whole idea behind a lottery is that people can take their chances in winning a much larger sum. You buy a lot and take your lot in your own hands - or at least that is what is sold. 

This idea of risking your money to make even more has been around a long time. There has always been all sorts of gambling. But it was the Dutch who first came up with the idea of risking funds to help businesses grow. It was in the Netherlands in 1602 that the Dutch East India Company was set up. Some see this as the beginning of trading stock in a company. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is often considered the beginning of modern securities markets, although lending had been present on a larger scale since the Middle Ages in places like Italy. 

The idea behind a stock exchange is that people can buy stock in a company. The buyer buys a part of the company and runs the risk that the company will do well, hoping that the stock will become more valuable as the company grows. But this is of course never certain. Some companies fail, others become suddenly very successful. Today we would say they go “viral”. The stock holders want the company to do well so that they can get their money back and more. 

The most well-known markets are now in the US and England: the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ and the London Stock Exchange. The AEX is the exchange in Amsterdam. The buildings in which these exchanges are housed are often well-known, even as tourist attractions. The “Beurs” or the “Bourse” can be found in Brussels, in Amsterdam and in many other European cities. (The picture is of the exchange in New York on Wall Street).