STOCK MARKETS
The origin of stock markets is to be found at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution that began in Europe about
four centuries ago. The early associations for trading were either individual owners or partnerships. The first modern
shareholding enterprise is generally recognized as the proposal by Sebastian Cabot, the British explorer, to set up an
enterprise to find a North East trade route to China and the Orient. Many of the pioneer merchants of the industrial age
wanted to start huge businesses, which no single merchant could accomplish alone. It therefore became inevitable for
them to come together, pool their savings and start their businesses as partners and co-owners. The contribution of each
partner to the enterprise was to be represented by a unit of ownership. This was the precursor to what we call shares and
through this, joint stock companies were born.
Initially, trading in shares began informally on the streets of London. As the volume of shares increased with more
companies floating shares (giving people opportunities to buy their shares), the need for an organized market place for
the exchange of these shares escalated. As a result, these traders decided to meet at the coffeehouse, which they used as
the marketplace. Eventually, they took over the coffeehouse and changed its name to stock exchange; this was in the
year 1773 and the first stock exchange, the London Stock Exchange, was founded (Valdez, 2003). Financial
intermediaries (brokers, fund managers, investment advisors, investment banks, etc) and other instruments like bonds
then followed suit as an evitable consequence.
Wall Street can trace its name back to 1653. Originally it was set up for defense and not for commerce. In 1792, a
group of New York merchants met to discuss how to take command of the securities business. The merchants, a group
of 24 men, founded what is now known as the New York Stock Exchange
(Valdez, 2003). The exchange opened up
shop on Wall Street. As for the New York Stock Exchange, it has since moved its humble beginnings to the point where
its system now facilitates billions of dollars worth of trades each day. Over time, stock markets have become the very
symbol of commerce in the modern world. They are unique in their scope and in the complexity of the number of
transactions they handle each day.
There are a number of different stock exchanges in operation in the world through which securities can be bought
or sold. The most popular exchanges include the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ (National Association of
Security Dealers Automated Quotation), the American Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange and the Hong
Kong Stock Exchange.
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