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..."
We may not know the answer to this one ...
ReplyDeleteI 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
Standard Oil?
ReplyDeleteOH, I was so far off on this one! I kind of wondered if it hadn't happened much earlier.
ReplyDeleteJust a wild guess, Lloyd's of London?
ReplyDeleteDutch East India Co.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good one.
ReplyDeleteEast India Trading Company ???