In the time we live in the news –both positive and negative – about the stock exchange and the financial market are very frequent: you only need to watch news, turn over the pages of a newspaper or having a look at the courses that are conceived to teach people investing on the stock exchange to realize that the news regarding this field are now of general interest. Moreover, the latest negative events that have affected stock exchanges all over the world in 2008-2009 have spotlighted this field even more, catching also the attention of those that were not particularly interested and well- informed in this sector.
The stock exchange crisis that has upset the world markets in very recent times was not the only one in the stock exchange history, a history that began a long time ago. We can even say that the ancestors of the stock exchange date back to the ancient Greece, when there that was a sort of stockbroker and trader called "trapezita". Other predecessors of financial markets are to be found in some Italian trading towns like Venice and Florence in the 15th century. Apart from these ancient examples, we can claim that the history of the buying and selling of shares began later on, most notably in the 16th century in Bruges. And it was in the Fleming city that the term "bourse", which stands for stock exchange, is believed to be born. The term is believed to come from the name of the family of merchants Van der Burse: it was in their house that the trading for buying and selling of shares representing goods or money coming from faraway countries took place. On the façade of the palace of the family Van der Burse people could see the coat of arms of the family, representing three bags: "bursa" is the Latin word for bag, therefore the term "bourse" might come from that. Trading in Bruges took place also on squares and among the canals of Amsterdam, but the house of the Van der Burse was certainly one of the most important places for trading.
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The first stock exchange was born in Antwerp in 1531, then many other stock exchanges were born in many important European and American cities, like Lyon in France (1548) and Amsterdam (1561), which became even more important than Antwerp. The most important stock exchange of the world, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was instituted at the end of the 18th century, more precisely in 1792, while the Milan Stock Exchange was born at the beginning of 1808.
Since the institution of the first Stock Exchange and in the following centuries the field of stock exchange has certainly gone through many developments and changes, and crisis too, from the trade expansions in the 18th century, which boosted the development of the stock market, to the speculative boom in the 19th century, from the Wall Street Crash of 1929 to the recent crisis that is still affecting our lives, form the trading from the gates to online trading. Positive and negative moments, that have characterized the history of one of the most ancient institutions of many societies.
