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Article: Stock Market
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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STOCK MARKET
STOCK MARKET.
Originating in the Netherlands and Great Britain during the seventeenth century, stock exchanges initially enabled investors to buy and sell shares of companies to raise money for overseas expansion. Called "bourses," these exchanges eventually began dealing in the public securities of banks, insurance companies, and manufacturing firms. Until World War I, the London Stock Exchange was the largest and busiest in the world. Although inaugurated in 1792, when twenty-four New York merchants signed the Buttonwood Agreement, and formally organized in 1817, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which is located on Wall Street in New York City, was small by comparison ...