Latest history
Collegie tot Nut des Obligatiehandels
The first stock exchange organization in Amsterdam The end of the eighteenth century was a turbulent time. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, The French Revolution, and tension between patriots and royalists – in the Netherlands – created an uncertain investment climate. The once powerful Dutch East India Company was in its final days, as was the.. Read more
Corporate Governance Code
Who is in control in a publicly listed company? That is, in short, what corporate governance is all about. This question presented itself for the first time to the VOC (Dutch East India Company), which in 1602 was the first company to be funded by a large group of shareholders. Were these investors in charge,.. Read more
Exchange drumming
It is the year 1622. The Eighty Years’ War against Spain has just been resumed. After the Twelve Years’ Truce, Spanish general Spinola conceived of a plan to inflict a decisive blow to the rebel provinces by shutting down trade in Amsterdam. And what is more obvious than blowing up the center of trade: the.. Read more
From floor to screen
After the introduction of the first computers in the ninteeneighties, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange completely switched to screen trading in the late nineties. The vacated large stock exchange hall on Beursplein 5 provided a solution for the Options Exchange. At that time the latter still worked with an open-outcry trading floor. In 1998, over 800.. Read more
Railroads on the exchange
Especially after the end of the US Civil War in 1865, investing in American railroad funds became popular. Europe was in the grip of international tensions and investors were looking for a more stable investment market. Moreover, the number of Dutch funds on the stock exchange was still limited. The return on US investments was.. Read more
Russian securities declared invalid
Expectations regarding industrialization and the rise of Russia made Russian securities popular among Western European investors. The October Revolution of 1917, during which Bolsheviks led by Lenin seized power, threw a spanner in the works. Dutch investors had invested an estimated one to two billion guilders in Russian bonds and railroad loans that were guaranteed.. Read more
Poyais: investing in an imaginary country
In 1821, a particular gentleman arrived in London: Gregor MacGregor, Sovereign Prince of the independent state of Poyais. An invented country, somewhere in Central America. In today’s internet era, it is very likely that such a fabrication would have been debunked within no time. In the early 19th century, however, many investors were completely fooled.. Read more
Independent supervision
For centuries, the Amsterdam securities exchange had a self-regulating system. In 1914, in the context of the First World War, the first Stock Exchange Act was passed. On the basis thereof, the government in The Hague was given formal powers in the securities field. However, in reality, little changed. In practice, the government left the.. Read more
Netherlands: Financier of foreign countries
The capital acquired by the Netherlands in the Golden Age had to be invested. In other countries, there was actually a need for money, and that is why foreign funds appeared on the Amsterdam stock exchange by the end of the 17th century. The first foreign government loan was arranged by trading firm Wed. Deutz.. Read more
Competition and new players
The Amsterdam Stock Exchange had little to no competition until well into the 20th century. After the dissolution of the exchanges of The Hague and Rotterdam in the nineteenseventies, it even established a total monopoly in the Netherlands. There was no competition from abroad either. Exchanges were still purely national institutions. This gradually started to.. Read more
Beursplein 5
The Vereniging voor de Effectenhandel (Amsterdam Stock Exchange Association) was dissatisfied with the securities floor in the Beurs van Berlage that traders had begun to use in 1903. Next to the Beurs van Berlage on Beursplein was the Bible Hotel, which stood on the edge of bankruptcy. According to the association, this was a good.. Read more
Wall Street stockmarket crash
On November 1, 1929, the board of the Amsterdam stock exchange gathered for an emergency meeting. This was prompted by a petition in which 181 of the 795 members asked to close the exchange on Saturday, November 2nd. After all, the New York and London stock exchanges also closed for two days because of a.. Read more
The Netherlands finances the US
The wealth the Netherlands acquired in the Golden Age made the Republic very interesting to other countries. From the end of the seventeenth century, the Netherlands grew to become a financier of foreign countries. Many European monarchs and countries called on the Amsterdam capital market, and Dutch money penetrated into every corner of Europe. As.. Read more
First exchange locations
Where goods flows converge, trade emerges. Therefore, it is not surprising that the first permanent exchange locations of Amsterdam flourished at the harbor. There was no exchange building yet, but the north side of the Warmoesstraat was referred to as the place “where the merchants come together daily” in 1493. In rainy weather, the merchants.. Read more
A goodbye to the paper share
The increase of securities trading in the second half of the 20th century showed just how impractical many of the processes were. In case of a dividend payment, the shareholder had to cut off a coupon and submit it to a paying agent appointed by the company. Because most of the shares were kept in.. Read more
Amsterdam Exchanges
One exchange for shares and options As organizations, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and Options Exchange were independent of one another. They did have a number of common interests. In the Joint Executive Committee, formed in 1992, the chairmen of both exchanges regularly conducted consultations. This was done, for instance, in order to prepare for talks.. Read more
Black Monday
On Monday, October 19, 1987, share prices plummeted, without any apparent reason. The EOE index – as the AEX index was then called – on the Amsterdam stock exchange also dropped by 12%. One day later, this was followed by an additional 6% loss. In contrast to the 1929 Wall Street crash, many private investors.. Read more
Rotterdam Exchange
Over a decade before the Beurs van Hendrick de Keyser was built in Amsterdam – in 1598, to be precise – Rotterdam already had a exchange building on the Haringvliet. Because of a lack of space, trade moved to the Noordblaak in 1635. As of 1736, trade occurred in a exchange building on the Westnieuwland,.. Read more
VOC: the start of global share trading
The Dutch East India Company (VOC), established in 1602, was the first company in the world to issue shares to a broad audience. Before the rise of the VOC, a limited group of moneylenders was already able to participate in the financing of a single sea voyage. Whenever the voyage was successful, the investors subsequently.. Read more
The AEX index
Until 1983, the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (Statistics Netherlands) was the only institution in the Netherlands that published a stock market indicator. All funds were represented in the CBS index. The EOE index – the current AEX index – introduced a market index containing only the most important shares: the first blue chip index.. Read more
The Bank of Amsterdam
The Bank of Amsterdam (the Amsterdamse Wisselbank), established on January 31, 1609, played a pivotal role in the 17th and 18th-century financial center of Amsterdam. Coins from a wide variety of countries and regions circulated, but a good system to determine exchange rates did not exist. At the bank, people could exchange their coins for.. Read more
A stock exchange in The Hague
As a result of their dissatisfaction with the Amsterdam stock exchange, securities traders in The Hague started their own exchange in 1905. A point of dispute was the commission scheme. Amsterdam exchange members could profit from a better rate on the Amsterdam stock exchange than parties from outside the capital. The Bond voor den Geld-.. Read more
A perpetual bond
The success of the VOC shares was contagious. In 1623, the West Indian Company (WIC) had its stock exchange debut and placed shares worth 7 million guilders. National, provincial, and local governments were able to find their way to the public capital market as well. Consequently, various public works, such as the draining of polders,.. Read more
The Wind Trade Crisis
Around 1720, France and Great Britain faced large deficits. To improve the miserable position of their Treasury, debt certificates were exchanged for shares of semi-public companies. In France, it was the Mississippi Company, and in Great Britain, it was the South Sea Company. In exchange for taking over the government debt, these companies received trading.. Read more
The Vereniging voor de Effectenhandel
For 120 years, the Vereniging voor de Effectenhandel (Amsterdam Stock Exchange Association) was a decisive factor for securities trading in the Netherlands. On May 17th 1876 the association was launched as a result of the merger of the Algemeen Beurs-Comité and the Effecten-Sociëteit. At first, the Vereniging was solely responsible for organizing and maintaining the.. Read more
The Second World War
The German occupation had major consequences for the Dutch economy. The Treasury suffered greatly from provision that the Netherlands by decree had to pay towards the costs of German warfare, as well as the occupation itself. The result was that the national debt rose from 4 to 20 billion guilders between 1939 and 1945. Forced.. Read more
The Tulip mania
The first tulips to bloom in the Netherlands were planted in gardens in Amsterdam and Laren around 1590. More than thirty years later, tulip bulbs had penetrated the commodity futures market. Speculative trading – especially in Haarlem and Alkmaar – quadrupled the price of the exotic crop between 1634 and 1636. Such speculation was not.. Read more
The Options Exchange
The first options exchange in Europe, the European Options Exchange, started in the Beurs van Berlage on April 4, 1978. Chicago had premiered the first options exchange in the world in 1973, and the board of the Amsterdam Securities Exchange eyed that development with great interest. The question was raised whether such an exchange could.. Read more
Mercury: symbol of exchange trading
Mercury is the Roman god of trade. For centuries, he has symbolized the exchange in the Netherlands in many guises. As early as the 17th century, a statue of Mercury adorned the main facade of the Beurs van Hendrick de Keyser in Amsterdam. He was also present on and in the first buildings of the.. Read more
A Second Golden Age
In 1890 a small startup company went to the stock exchange: the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Petroleumbronnen in Nederlandsch-Indië (Royal Dutch Company for the Exploitation of Petroleum Wells in the Dutch East Indies). Today, we know this company under the name of Royal Dutch/Shell, a global player and the largest fund on the.. Read more
A world first: prices through radio
In 1920, the Amsterdam securities traders experienced both a national and a worldwide first with the introduction of a radio station on Beursplein 5. Not only were they able to use this then-revolutionary communications technique, which was well before national radio broadcasting in the Netherlands emerged; they were also the first traders in the world.. Read more
First rules for share trading
Because of the VOC, Amsterdam had the global scoop when it came to share trading. Logically, Amsterdam was also the first to experience its downside: speculation and price manipulation. A 1610 proclamation of the States General of the Netherlands prohibits wild speculation on a price drop of the VOC share. As far as is known,.. Read more
The exchange of Hendrick de Keyser
Antwerp, London and Rotterdam already had a exchange building. In 1607, the Amsterdam city council made a decision: a exchange building had to be built here as well. Hendrick de Keyser, who was appointed as the ‘city architect, stonemason, and sculptor’ in 1594, was sent to London in order to study the city’s exchange building... Read more
The gong
In December 2002, the end of floor trading was affirmed with a stroke of the gong by Job Cohen, the then-mayor of Amsterdam. In early 2008, he came to Beursplein 5 for another stroke of the gong. This time, it was to reopen the floor. But it would no longer be home to wildly gesticulating,.. Read more
The first price list
Although previous lists with prices and rates had been spread, experts consider Nicolaas Cotray’s Prys-Courant der Effecten (Price List for Securities), published since August 2, 1796, to be the first real price list. The list was published twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Printer, bookseller, and publisher Cotray capitalized on the zeitgeist. For a.. Read more
The first book on share trading
In 1688, the book ‘Confusion de Confusiones’ (Confusion of Confusions), written by Portuguese-Jewish author Josseph de la Vega, was published. It was the first book in the world that solely covered the topic of securities trading. In the book, which was published following a brief stock market crash in the same year, we take cognizance.. Read more
The first woman on the show floor
“Today was a momentous day in the history of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. H.M. the Woman made her entrance into the temple, which until now has been the undisputed territory of the man.” Thus the Handelsblad of April 16, 1923 described the joining of the fellowship of Miss Henriëtte Wilhelmina Deterding, the first female member... Read more
The Nieuwe Handel-Sociëteit
The second stock exchange organization in Amsterdam Discontented members of the Collegie tot Nut des Obligatiehandels founded the Nieuwe Handel-Sociëteit (New Trade Society) in 1833. They were disappointed by the wide margins the Collegie used when publishing the prices of transactions. According to them, listings in Cotray’s Price List such as 76 to 84 or.. Read more
Euronext
The Amsterdam stock exchange goes international From the beginning, Amsterdam’s stock market was always strongly internationally oriented. Not for nothing was the Amsterdam stock exchange for a long time considered as financier of foreign countries. From the end of the 19th century, the period of the Second Golden Age this gradually changed. A large influx.. Read more
The origins of clearing
In 1888, futures markets for coffee opened in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. According to good custom in commodity trading, a liquidation box (‘liquidatiekas’) was immediately established in both cities as well. These liquidation boxes ensured an efficient and reliable handling of transactions – more commonly known as clearing in professional circles. Additionally, the liquidation boxes take.. Read more
The Zocher exchange
For well over two centuries, the Beurs van Hendrick de Keyser was the center of trade in Amsterdam, until the building was closed due to dilapidation in 1835. Its demolition followed two years later. The dilapidation of the exchange almost served as a symbol for the unpromising situation the Dutch economy was in at the.. Read more
Everyone is an investor!
During the ‘initial public offering’ of the VOC, the wealthy residents of the Republic were not the only ones who were buying shares. Among the shareholders were housekeepers, basket makers, carpenters, coopers and even ‘bunglers’. Nevertheless, investing remained a matter of the wealthy for centuries. Shortly after the Second World War, the popularity of the.. Read more
The exchange of Berlage
After it had been decided to replace the Beurs van Zocher, a heated discussion on the requirements for a new exchange ensued in Amsterdam. Eventually, five designs were selected, and in 1886, the Amsterdam city council decided to proclaim the design of L. Cordonnier the winning one. After fierce protests, alderman M.W.F. Treub secretly recruited.. Read more
The world’s first investment fund
The economic situation did not look bright in the second half of the 18th century. In Great Britain, the Ayr bank went bankrupt, and Dutch bank Clifford & Co was pulled into this bankruptcy. This resulted in a crisis that continued to spread like wildfire in 1772. As it is often the case, setbacks led.. Read more
Collaborating organizations
Collaborating stock exchange organizations in Amsterdam In 1856, the Collegie tot Nut des Obligatiehandels and the Nieuwe Handel-Sociëteit jointly founded the Algemeen Beurs-Comité voor Publieke Fondsen (General Exchange Committee for Public Funds). From the two original associations, members elected a board consisting of twelve people. The new Beurs-Comité set itself the goal of bringing order and.. Read more
