The beginnings of financial capitalism is usually traced to the second great
age of discovery, when corporations such as the Dutch East India company
[VOC] were formed to bring the riches of the Asia to European markets. Although
trading in the shares of the VOC began in 1609 on the Amsterdam exchange,
an upstart rival, the Imperial India company of Antwerp publically offered
their shares in 1723, and quickly sold out to eager investors seeking to
participate in Asian trade. The capital raised by the Imperial India Company
financed extraordinarily profitable voyages to China where the firm's merchants
traded for casks of Chinese tea, fine silks and other exotica. Success was
short-lived however. In 1727 the company's charter was suspended by the preliminary
Treaty of Paris and in 1731 the company was outlawed by the Second Treaty
of Vienna. The dates you see on the stock certificate show that subscribers
paid-up in stages as capital was needed. It may also have ben a means by
which shareholders partially protected themselves against bankruptcy.
