Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sunday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Approximately 4000 years ago.

Today's question is:
Which was the first company in the world to issue stock?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

We may not know the answer to this one ...

I quote: "The financial speculator in ancient Rome, however, was called quaestor, which means a seeker. Collectively, speculators were sometimes referred to as Graeci or Greeks. Their meeting place was the Forum, near the Temple of Castor, where "crowds of men bought and sold shares and bonds of tax-farming companies..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/deviltakethehindmost.htm

The first "joint stock company" appears to be the Virginia Company.

The Swedish company "Stora" has a recorded stock transfer earlier than the Virginia Company, though.

I suspect a lot of this depends on how one wishes to define "stock." :-)

-Mark Roulo

PeggyU said...

Standard Oil?

PeggyU said...

OH, I was so far off on this one! I kind of wondered if it hadn't happened much earlier.

Steve USMA '85 said...

Just a wild guess, Lloyd's of London?

Anonymous said...

Dutch East India Co.

gbradley said...

That's a good one.
East India Trading Company ???