Amsterdam as the cradle of modern futures and options trading ...

Endnotes
1
The authors would like to thank Nico van Horn for research assistance. Abbreviations in text: ACA,
Amsterdam City Archives; DNA, Dutch National Archives; NA, Notarial Archives
2
Cf. for instance: P.J. Blok, “Mémoire touchant le negoce et la navigation des hollandois...”, in: Bijdragen en
Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap, 24 (1903), 221-342, at 234; M.F.J. Smith, Tijdaffaires aan de
Amsterdamsche beurs (Nijhoff: The Hague 1919) 96-101; J.G. van Dillen, ‘Termijnhandel te Amsterdam in de 16e
en 17e eeuw’, in: De economist 76 (1927) 503-523; V. Barbour, Capitalism in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth
Century (John Hopkins Press: Baltimore 1950), 74-80; H. van der Wee, ‘Monetary, credit, and banking systems’, in:
E.E. Rich, Ch. Wilson, ed., The Cambridge economic history of Europe V (Cambridge 1977) 240-392. Richard
Ehrenberg also insisted that wagers were the forerunner of derivates, though he recognizes potential benefits of
derivatives of derivative trading: Das Zeitalter der Fugger, Geldkapital und Creditverkehr im 16. Jahrhundert, II,
Die Weltbörsen und Finanzkrisen des 16. Jahrhunderts (Fischer: Jena 1896), 308.
3
For an analysis of contemporary Dutch attitudes to speculation and particularly windhandel, see N. De Marchi and
P. Harrison, ‘Trading “in the Wind” and with Guile: The Troublesome Matter of the Short Selling of Shares in
Seventeenth-Century Hollland’, in N. De Marchi and M.S. Morgan, eds., Higgling, transactors and their markets in
the history of economics (Duke University Press: Durham 1994), 47-65. Swan, Building the global market 78-79; cf.
E.H. Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, de Tulpomanie van 1636-1637 en de Hyacintenhandel 1720-1736
(Van Kampen: Amsterdam 1942) 95-96, referring to Dutch court considerations about this point, elaborated by the
German philosopher of law R. Stammler, ‘Die Harlemer Tulpenmanie’, in: Deutsches Rechtsleben im alten Reich 1
(1928).
4 th
Cf. for instance R.A. Brealey, S.C. Myers, Principles of corporate finance (Mc Graw Hill: New York, 4 ed
1991), 483-504; ‘Greenspan, unlike Buffett, sees derivatives as positive influence’, The New York Times March
8, 2003 p. C14; ‘Off target’, ‘Buffetted’, in: The Economist March 15, pp 14 and 74 respectively.
5
E.J. Swan, Building the global market, a 4000 year history of derivatives (Kluwer Law: The Hague 2000) 28-29,
36-37. On 139-221, Swan jumps from Antwerp to London; G. Poitras, The early history of financial economics,
1478-1776, from commercial arithmetics to life annuities and joint stocks (Elgar: Cheltenham 2000) 335-381, gives a
far more comprehensive picture, including the emergence of rice futures in 18 th century Japan described in full by U.
Schaede, ‘Forwards and futures in Tokugawa period Japan’, in: Journal of banking and finance 13 (1989) 487-513.
6
J. Penso de la Vega, Confusion de confusiones (Amsterdam 1688). Complete Dutch edition by G.J. Geers/M.F.J.
Smith, Nijhoff, The Hague 1939; a selection of the text in English translation by H. Kellenbenz, Cambridge Mass
1957, republished by M.S. Fridson, New York 1996; The first economic historian to draw attention to De la Vega’s
work was Richard Ehrenberg: ‘Die Amsterdamer Aktienspekulation im 17. Jahrhundert’, in: Conrad’s Jahrbücher
für NationalÖkonomie und Statistik 3. Folge III. Band (1892) 809-826; About De la Vega: J.I. Israel, 'The
Amsterdam stock exchange and the English revolution of 1688', in: Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis 103 (1990) 412-
440; idem, ‘Een merkwaardig literair werk en de Amsterdamse effectenmarkt in 1688: Joseph Penso de la Vega’s
Confusion de confusiones’, in: De zeventiende eeuw 6 (1990) 159-161
7
Ch. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch commerce and finance in the eighteenth century (CUP: Cambridge 1941), 79-87; P.G.M.
Dickson, The financial revolution in England, a study in the development of public credit 1688-1756 (OUP:
Oxford 1967), 491, 507-510; L. Neal, The rise of financial capitalism, international capital markets in the age of
reason (CUP: Cambridge 1990) 16-19, 141-165; R.C. Michie, ‘The invisible stabilizer, asset arbitrage and the
international monetary system since 1700’, in: Financial history review 5 (1998) 5-26.
8
Sayous, ‘Spéculation’, 38-46; W.S. Unger, ‘De Hollandsche graanhandel en Graanhandelspolitiek in de
Middeleeuwen’, De Economist 65 (1916), 243-269, 337-386, 461-486, at 365-366; Van Dillen, Termijnhandel,
passim
9
Cf. J.G. van Dillen, 'Isaac le Maire en de handel in actiën der Oost-Indische Compagnie', in: Economisch-historisch
jaarboek 16 (1930) 1-165. Also: O. Gelderblom and J. Jonker, ‘Completing a financial revolution, the finance of
the Dutch East India trade and the rise of the Amsterdam capital market, 1595-1612’, forthcoming.
10
M. Dash, Tulipomania, the story of the world’s most coveted flower and the extraordinary passions it aroused
(London 1999); Cf. also E.H. Krelage, Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland, de Tulpomanie van 1636-1637 en de
Hyacintenhandel 1720-1736 (Van Kampen: Amsterdam 1942); Idem, ‘Het manuscript over den tulpenwindhandel
uit de verzameling-Meulman’, in: Economisch-Historisch jaarboek 22 (1940-1942) 26-48; A series of still
indispensable documents was published by N.W. Posthumus, ‘De speculatie in tulpen in de jaren 1636 en 1637’, in:
Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek 12 (1926), 3-99; Idem, 13 (1927) 1-85; Idem, 18 (1934).
11
Swan, Building, 5; Poitras, History 335; P.L. Bernstein, Against the gods, the remarkable story of risk (Wiley:
New York 1996) 304-306.
12
R. Levine, ‘Financial development and economic growth: views and agenda’, in: Journal of economic
literature 35 (1997) 688-726.
13
Sayous, ‘Speculation’; De Marchi & Harrison, ‘Trading’
14
Poitras, Early History, 348.
20