The World's First Stock Exchange by Lodewijk Petram

A vivid history of the Amsterdam market that emerged around the Dutch East India Company in the early 1600s, showing how shares, short selling, futures, and options took shape alongside bustling trading practices on the Dam and in the bourse. Drawing on notarial records and court cases, it reconstructs the lives, schemes, disputes, and innovations of merchants, brokers, and small traders, revealing how rules, reputation, and enforcement evolved to curb fraud and manage risk. The narrative links these origins to familiar features of modern finance, from speculation and leverage to liquidity, information networks, and regulation.

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