Before the stock market started to take shape, merchants did business at the medieval fairs. Such fairs began to appear occasionally from the 13th century. People used bills of exchange to pay for goods. They were also called "wechsel". At that time, the German word "wechsel" meant exchange. Since then, its meaning has not changed much. Wechsel was a legal document that obliged the borrower to pay off the debt on a certain day. Сitizens and merchants used wechsels to buy goods at fairs. Later, this practice served as a prototype for the modern stock exchange. In the 16th century, stock exchanges moved from fairs to specially established institutions. The first ones were founded in Antwerp, the Netherlands, and in Lyon, France, in 1531 and 1556, respectively. However, those stock exchanges did not last long and ceased to operate in the second half of the 16th century. During that period, governments of many countries began to realize that the Treasury could not fully cover the costs associated with the functioning of their states. For that reason, they decided to raise funds by issuing government securities. Joint-stock companies, which started to form actively between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, made the greatest contribution to the creation of the modern stock market. In fact, those trading floors were the prototypes of modern stock markets. One of the most famous joint stock companies was the British East India Company, which was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I. Then the Moscow, Levant, Baltic, and Dutch United East India companies joined in. However, all these companies were created with one single purpose to pool private capital for making large transactions. Around the middle of the 17th century, the legal status of joint-stock companies was fixed by law. It meant that shareholders could count on dividends (or people back then used to say a part of the profit depending on the number of shares). Those companies had their own peculiarities. For example, in the Dutch East India Company, dividends were paid in kind, rather than in money. Basically, dividends were paid in goods e.g. such as spices. Only in 1644, the company fully switched to dividend payment in money. Nevertheless, until the beginning of the 19th century, joint-stock companies were quite rare, and securities did not bring too much income. The main part of operations with shares was carried out through trading in the government securities, which later became the analogue for modern stock exchanges. The Amsterdam exchange was rightfully considered the world’s first stock exchange, founded in 1611. Until 1913, traders were able to conduct deals with both stocks and commodities on the Amsterdam exchange. Over the long period of its existence, the Amsterdam exchange has been able to get approval and practice various methods of trading shares, including futures, premium deals (present-day options), repo, contango and backwardation, margin deals, and many others. At first, anyone could enter the stock exchange without restrictions and make transactions at their discretion with anyone. Regular trading was conducted on the stock exchange only in shares of the United East India Company. As we remember, it was the first joint-stock company in the Netherlands. A bit later, the West India Company joined it. In addition, participants of the stock exchange had the opportunity to work with bonds of the Dutch government and some administrations of Dutch cities. By 1747, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange had already had about 44 types of securities that were traded on a permanent basis. However, it failed to remain the only trading floor in the world. The first stock exchange in the UK was officially formed in 1773. Interestingly enough, the future Royal Exchange and Threadneedle Street appeared thanks to the decisive brokers who rented a room in a London coffee shop that was used as a platform for performing operations on various financial instruments. Just like in Amsterdam, anyone could join by paying only six pence for admission. After 80 years, the first owners of the modest office were able to save enough money to build a separate building for work, which was then coined the name "stock exchange". After that, stock exchanges began to grow like mushrooms after the rain. They were established across the country in such cities as Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, etc., and each of them chose its own specialization. For example, the Liverpool Exchange worked with shares of insurance companies and American issuers. The Glasgow Exchange preferred cooperating with shipbuilding, iron and steel companies. Notably, England took over the stock trading and London became a global financial center. The first stock exchange in the US appeared in 1791 in Philadelphia. A year later, brokers who lived in New York repeated the history of their colleagues from the UK. They decided to open their own trading space and signed the so-called Buttonwood Agreement that grew into the mighty New York Stock Exchange. Like their London counterparts, they focused on government bonds trading. Only after the Civil War, they shifted their attention largely to stocks. The creation of the New York Stock Exchange attracted a great deal of attention from the public, and the role that the exchange began to play in the second half of the 19th century was vital for the economy. It served as the most important instrument of the investment mechanism. Importantly, this function remains relevant nowadays. In our days, the economic stability of a state can be estimated by the level of development of the stock market.
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