Finance through the Ages
Date unknown Compound Growth. Bacteria start to propagate by subdividing. They thereby demonstrate
the power of compound growth.
c. 1800 B.C. Interest Rates. In Babylonia Hammurabi’s Code established maximum interest rates on loans. Borrowers often mortgaged their property and sometimes their spouses but in these cases the lender was obliged to return the spouse in good condition within 3 years.
c. 1000 B.C. Options. One of the earliest recorded options is described by Aristotle. The philosopher Thales knew by the stars that there would be a great olive harvest, so, having a little money, he bought options for the use of olive presses. When the harvest came Thales was able to rent the presses at great profit. Today financial managers need to be able to evaluate options to buy or sell a wide variety of assets.
15th century International Banking. Modern international banking has its origins in the great Florentine
banking houses. But the entire European network of the Medici empire employed only 57 people in eight offices. Today Citicorp has 81,000 employees and 3500 offices in 93 different countries.
1650 Futures. Futures markets allow companies to protect themselves against fluctuations in commodity
prices. During the Tokugawa era in Japan feudal lords collected rents in the form of rice but often they
wished to trade their future rice deliveries. Rice futures therefore came to be traded on what was later
known as the Dojima Rice Market. Rice futures are still traded but now companies can also trade in futures
on a range of items from pork bellies to stock market indexes.
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