200 years of stock trading in Frankfurt: It all began with the share of the Austrian National Bank. Since then, countless companies have financed themselves via the stock exchange - and investors have invested in precisely those companies. With our series “Evolution of exchange trading” we look back on the origins and milestones of exchange trading from various perspectives.

The anniversary is reason enough to look back on how exchange trading on the Main actually came into being. Because its history is much longer.

Markets have existed since people started trading with each other. The principle is very simple: people who offer goods and those who want to buy them meet at a certain place, act according to rules and at agreed times. This applies to the weekly farmer’s market as well as to the financial market and thus to exchanges. 

The German term for stock exchange, “Börse”, originated in the 15th century in Bruges, Belgium. Rich Italian merchants regularly gathered on the square “ter buerse” (lat. Bursa: bag, purse). At that time there was not yet a single currency. The countries were divided into many small economic areas, each with its own monetary system. This also applied to the German Reich with its many small states. The abundance of means of payment and the unrestricted exchange rates made usury and fraud possible. 

What happened in Frankfurt: