Amsterdam Stock Exchange

Amsterdam Stock Exchange

The ups and downs of the stock market tug at the heartstrings of every investor. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange was the first place where people’s moods rose and fell with the index. 17th-century Amsterdam was the Wall Street of today. The world’s first joint-stock company — the Dutch East India Company — was founded in 1609, and in the same year, the world’s first stock exchange — the Amsterdam Stock Exchange — and the Amsterdam Bank were established. Nearly all of Amsterdam’s citizens owned stocks at the time, and it’s said that even the mayor’s maid invested in the Dutch East India Company. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange was the most active capital market in Europe at the time, concentrating the largest amount of capital in the world. Imagine over a thousand stockbrokers — dressed in medieval attire rather than red vests — bustling about here, with vast dividend incomes flowing from this courtyard, no larger than 1,600 square meters, into the Dutch treasury and the pockets of ordinary Dutch people. From British government bonds alone, the Netherlands earned an annual income equivalent to more than 200 tons of silver. Today, it is a unique cultural center that hosts concerts and architectural exhibitions throughout the year.