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The World’s First Stock Exchange Page 1 (10 of 305)
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A World-Famous Book
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A World-Famous Book
If one were to lead a stranger through the streets of Amsterdam
and ask him where was, he would answer “among speculators,”
for there is no corner where one does not talk shares.
—joseph penso de la vega,
confusión de confusiones
this is not about Wall Street and the area around it, nor is
it about the City of London. This is Amsterdam, the Amsterdam
of around 1688—more than three centuries ago. It was not long
since the great town houses along the rings of canals had been
finished, and at night, save for a few flickering lanterns outside
the houses, it was pitch dark in the streets and on the canals. On
the far bank of the bay known as the IJ—clearly visible from the
city—the bodies of condemned felons swung from the gallows.
Was this really the place where people were talking about shares
on every street corner?
It was. And the people of Amsterdam were talking about op-
tions,1 too, and forward selling, quotations and prices, risk and
speculation—all relating to the trade in the shares of the Dutch
East India Company (the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie,
VOC), which had been established in 1602. Fortunes were made
and lost, and the men who engaged in this trade were wholly in
thrall to it.
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