explain how the markets of today are different from the ones which existed to decades ago
Answers
Early stock and commodity markets
The first genuine stock markets didn’t arrive until the 1500s. However, there were plenty of early examples of markets which were similar to stock markets.
In the 1100s, for example, France had a system where courretiers de change managed agricultural debts throughout the country on behalf of banks. This can be seen as the first major example of brokerage because the men effectively traded debts.
Later on, the merchants of Venice were credited with trading government securities as earl y as the 13th century. Soon after, bankers in the nearby Italian cities of Pisa, Verona, Genoa, and Florence also began trading government securities.
The world’s first stock markets (without stocks)
The world’s first stock markets are generally linked back to Belgium. Bruges, Flanders, Ghent, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands all hosted their own “stock” market systems in the 1400s and 1500s.
However, it’s generally accepted that Antwerp had the world’s first stock market system. Antwerp was the commercial center of Belgium and it was home to the influential Van der Beurze family. As a result, early stock markets were typically called Beurzen.
All of these early stock markets had one thing missing: stocks. Although the infrastructure and institutions resembled today’s stock markets, nobody was actually trading shares of a company. Instead, the markets dealt with the affairs of government, businesses, and individual debt. The system and organization was similar, although the actual properties being traded were different.
The world’s first publically traded company
The East India Company is widely recognized as the world’s first publically traded company. There was one simple reason why the East India Company became the first publically traded company: risk.