ECONOMICS · MARKETS · Capital
Origins
The origins of the world's first modern stock market.
The story behind Rokin's name begins in Amsterdam, where trading in shares of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) developed after its establishment in 1602. Investors could transfer their holdings, creating a market in ownership as well as goods. Over the following decades, Amsterdam became the setting for what is widely regarded as the world's first modern securities market. [1][2]
Claes Jansz. Visscher (II), 1613-1648. Etching and engraving. Rijksmuseum, RP-P-1880-A-3841. Public domain.
An exchange on the Rokin.
Before Amsterdam had a dedicated exchange building, merchants gathered around the Nieuwebrug and sought shelter in churches during bad weather. In 1611, a purpose-built beurs designed by Hendrick de Keyser opened near Dam Square, partly over the water at the northern end of the Rokin. [4][5]
Its open courtyard was surrounded by colonnades. Numbered columns and notices helped merchants find the people and trading connections they needed. The building gave an international trading community a shared place to meet. [4]
The exchange brought together more than buyers and sellers of goods. Merchants arranged shipping, obtained credit, insured cargoes and exchanged commercial information. News about markets and trading conditions was part of its daily life: the movement of goods, money and information met in one place. [5]
The building stood for more than two centuries, but its position over the water proved troublesome. Repeated subsidence and cracking eventually led to its closure in 1836 and demolition in 1838. [6]
Why Rokin.
We chose Rokin for its association with a place where commerce, capital and information met. It reflects the relationship at the centre of our research: how developments in the real economy reshape markets, industries and businesses.
Our work looks forward from that history - examining what is changing, how its effects travel, and what those consequences mean for investment and commercial opportunity.
SOURCES
[1] Lodewijk Petram, The world's first stock exchange: how the Amsterdam market for Dutch East India Company shares became a modern securities market, 1602-1700, University of Amsterdam, 2011. The repository abstract distinguishes the market's beginnings in 1602 from its development into a modern securities market during 1630-1650.
[2] Lodewijk Petram, Contract Enforcement on the World's First Stock Exchange, in Financial Innovation, Regulation and Crises in History, Cambridge University Press. Supports transferable ownership and the development of a secondary market; explicitly distinguishes the VOC from earlier share-issuing companies.
[3] Rijksmuseum, Vogelvluchtgezicht op de Beurs van Hendrik de Keyser te Amsterdam, voor 1668, RP-P-1880-A-3841. The museum's record gives a date range of 1613-1648 and identifies the work as public domain. Use this range, not the 1611 opening date of the building, when dating the print.
[4] Stadsarchief Amsterdam, 1611 The Exchange.
[5] Stadsarchief Amsterdam, 1609 De Wisselbank.
[6] Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Beurs van De Keijser.