The first stock exchanges - a success story from Flanders

The history of trading in securities is much longer than many people think - it goes back to the late Middle Ages. Read exciting background information here.

Bruges - where it all began

Bruges, the venerable capital of Flanders, experienced its heyday as an important European trading city in the late Middle Ages. A stock exchange was founded there in 1531 in a centrally located building. Under the name "Byrsa Brugensis" (Bruges Stock Exchange), this building is recorded in contemporary city maps. Other sources suggest that stock exchanges already existed before this date: according to this, an institutionalized trading place opened in Bruges as early as the first quarter of the 15th century. The term stock exchange derives from the Dutch word for purse "beurs".

However, the first stock exchange did not trade in shares or other securitized company shares like currently in https://exnesscom.com/how-to-trade-stock-shares/. Rather, the focus was on the sale and purchase of bills of exchange.

The history of trading in securities is much longer than many people think - it goes back to the late Middle Ages. Read exciting background information here.

Bruges - where it all began

Bruges, the venerable capital of Flanders, experienced its heyday as an important European trading city in the late Middle Ages. A stock exchange was founded there in 1531 in a centrally located building. Under the name "Byrsa Brugensis" (Bruges Stock Exchange), this building is recorded in contemporary city maps. Other sources suggest that stock exchanges already existed before this date: according to this, an institutionalized trading place opened in Bruges as early as the first quarter of the 15th century. The term stock exchange derives from the Dutch word for purse "beurs".

However, the first stock exchange did not trade in shares or other securitized company shares. Rather, the focus was on the sale and purchase of bills of exchange.

Special case Wall Street

The history of the New York Stock Exchange, today briefly referred to as "Wall Street" because of its location on the office street of the same name, begins unusually: the U.S. government urgently needed money to finance the War of Independence. To this end, it issued government bonds worth about $80 million. These war bonds represent the beginning of securities trading in America. In 1792, securities traders banded together by signing the Buttonwood Agreement. In it, they pledged to follow uniform rules in securities trading and to charge their customers fees in equal amounts in each case. At that time, they traded the shares of only five public companies. But the number of companies whose shares could be bought and sold on Wall Street grew rapidly until the humble beginnings evolved into the world's largest stock exchange.

Conclusion:

    even the first stock exchange in Bruges fulfilled an important function as an institution facilitating finance
    Dutch and English trading companies were the first joint stock companies in the world
    maximum fungibility and limited liability made shares attractive and led to intensification of trading on stock exchanges