Lodewijk Petram

The launch of the Dutch East India Company in 1602 initiated AmsterdamÕs transformation from a regional market town into a dominant financial center. The Company introduced easily transferable shares, and within days buyers had begun to trade them. Soon the public was engaging in a variety of complex transactions, including forwards, futures, options, and bear raids, and by 1680, the techniques deployed in the Amsterdam market were as sophisticated as any we practice today. Lodewijk PetramÕs eye-opening history demystifies financial instruments by linking todayÕs products to yesterdayÕs innovations, tying the marketÕs operation to the behavior of individuals and the workings of the world around them. Traveling back to seventeenth-century Amsterdam, Petram visits the harbor and other places where merchants met to strike deals. He bears witness to the goings-on at a notaryÕs office and sits in on the consequential proceedings of a courtroom. He describes in detail the main players, investors, shady characters, speculators, and domestic servants and other ordinary folk, who all played a role in the development of the market and its crises. His history clarifies concerns that investors still struggle with today, such as fraud, the value of information, trust and the place of honor, managing diverging expectations, and balancing risk, and does so in a way that is vivid, relatable, and critical to understanding our contemporary financial predicament.

The World's First Stock Exchange

This account of the sophisticated financial hub that was 17th-century Amsterdam “does a fine job of bringing history to life” (Library Journal). The launch of the Dutch East India Company in 1602 initiated Amsterdam’s transformation from a regional market town into a dominant financial center. The Company introduced easily transferable shares, and within days buyers had begun to trade them. Soon the public was engaging in a variety of complex transactions, including forwards, futures, options, and bear raids, and by 1680 the techniques deployed in the Amsterdam market were as sophisticated as any we practice today. Lodewijk Petram’s award-winning history demystifies financial instruments by linking today’s products to yesterday’s innovations, tying the market’s operation to the behavior of individuals and the workings of the world around them. Traveling back in time, Petram visits the harbor and other places where merchants met to strike deals. He bears witness to the goings-on at a notary’s office and sits in on the consequential proceedings of a courtroom. He describes in detail the main players, investors, shady characters, speculators, and domestic servants and other ordinary folk, who all played a role in the development of the market and its crises. His history clarifies concerns that investors still struggle with today—such as fraud, the value of information, trust and the place of honor, managing diverging expectations, and balancing risk—and does so in a way that is vivid, relatable, and critical to understanding our contemporary world.

The Worlds First Stock Exchange

Samuël Kruizinga

In ‘ De oorlog tegemoet’ volgen Lodewijk Petram en Samuël Kruizinga op meeslepende wijze enkele van de Nederlandse strijders – voor, tijdens en na de Spaanse Burgeroorlog (1936-1939). Zij vertellen over de motivatie van de strijders, de kille ontvangst die hun bij terugkeer wachtte en hun moeizame weg naar eerherstel, en leggen zo bloot hoe Nederland in de cruciale jaren voor mei 1940 worstelde met zijn identiteit en positie in Europa, waar de politieke spanningen het kookpunt naderden.

Lodewijk Petram

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