The first ever IPO was issued by the Dutch East India Co., a spice company

The world’s first publicly traded company was the United East India Co.

In an effort to best Spain and gain access to valuable trade in Asia, the Dutch Republic launched the VOC, or the United East India Co. The company held an initial public offering in 1602, allowing “subscribers” to choose how much they wanted to invest in the new venture. It was open to all residents of the republic, making this the first opportunity for retail investors in the world.

The origin and history of stock exchanges

When were stocks first sold? Though debt was first sold in Venice in the 14th century, stocks proper began in the Netherlands. To fund its spice trade across the world in 1602, the Dutch East India Company sold stocks to individual investors, a novel approach to raising funds. It was the Dutch West India Company that founded New York—the site of some of the world’s greatest stock exchanges. Listen to a concise historical overview here.

The world's oldest stock exchange was called the Amsterdam Stock Exchange

What is now referred to as Euronext Amsterdam got its start centuries ago, in the early 1600s. Back then, it was called the Amsterdam Stock Exchange—and it might not have existed without the Dutch East India Co.'s desire to raise funding for its seafaring ventures.

How one man placed the first short against the Dutch East India Company

Isaac Le Maire, a Dutch businessman and cofounder of the Dutch East India Company, is said to be history's first short seller, betting against the Dutch East India Company's stock price. Le Maire, who had been fired from the spice trading company over an unclear financial dispute, began spreading false rumours about the company to encourage people to sell their stock in order to tank its value.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

A trading company became Britain's most powerful imperial force

The East India Company began as a private merchant venture and grew into Britain’s dominant power in India—amassing wealth, fielding armies, and governing tens of millions until the Crown took direct control in 1858.

It's difficult for individual investors to purchase IPO shares

Although the process of going public means the general public can invest in a company, the initial investment period is different. Before individual investors get in on the action, investment bankers sell the shares to larger financial institutions who can afford the asking price and risk associated with an IPO.

Dividends are payments made by a corporation to its shareholders

From the Dutch East India Company paying out the first dividends over 400 years ago to the word “dividend’s” ancient Latin roots, Dividend.com has a full explainer of this investing perk and how individuals can earn income while holding dividend-paying stocks or ETFs.

Google had a quirky, auction-based IPO

In its sixth year, Google's shareholders reached a size where regulators would require the company to publicly report its financials. This prompted the company to go public through an unconventional style: the Dutch auction. The company auctioned its shares starting from a high price and dropping to a lower level.

The 'big bang' of the dot-com era: Netscape's stock price doubled on the day of its initial public offering

The company behind the browser that revolutionized search went public on August 9, 1995. Just before the IPO, the company increased its initial opening price from $14 to $28. On the day the company went public, shares traded as high as $71 before closing at $58.25. The company's market capitalization exceeded $2B. The eye-popping IPO is largely considered the beginning of the dot-com bubble.

The South Sea Bubble was an 18th-century scandal that redefined speculation

This video illustrates how the South Sea Company in Britain sparked a stock boom in 1720, with promises of huge trading profits, driving shares to unprecedented heights before a sudden crash wiped out the fortunes of investors—including Isaac Newton, who lost an estimated £20K.

Some companies like to make their IPO day antics unique

An article details some of the wildest bell-ringing day stunts in recent history, from Clifford the Big Red Dog ringing the opening bell to one company's employees roasting marshmallows in a campfire on Wall Street as it went public.

The popular myth behind the India pale ale

Legend has it that the beer style earned its name in the late 1700s and early 1800s, when one brewer realized he had to add more alcohol and hops to his beers to survive the long boat ride to India. But as this essay by one beer historian makes clear, the facts don't line up with that myth.

Tulips were once viewed as alternative investments in Holland

In the 1600s, during a period of relative wealth for the Dutch after they gained their independence from Spain, some started collecting rare flower bulbs that created speckled and striped tulips.

The first private equity fund was launched in 1960

At the time, the industry—and the public's understanding of it—was rather limited, and few private equity firms existed until the 1980s. The first leveraged buyout is thought to have taken place in 1955.

Opium's history traces from religious use to mass-market commercial products

Religious or medical use of opium was present across Europe and Asia as early as 5000 BCE. By the 16th century, humanity had come to see opium as more than medicine: It was a marketable product. This perspective also defines today's relationship with opioids, highly addictive painkillers at the heart of an ongoing drug crisis.

Learn about the violent history of the nutmeg industry

From the 1600s to the 1860s, the Dutch East India Company enslaved thousands of people on the Banda Islands, the world's only nutmeg source, forcing them to work on plantations under a system unlike anything seen in the Caribbean or American South.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was created in 1896

Charles Dow introduced the DJIA on May 26, 1896, as a simple average of 12 industrial stocks. Although it became the nation’s most enduring market index, none of its original companies remain in the Dow today.

How John D. Rockefeller became the world's first billionaire

From a young age, John D. Rockefeller knew he was interested in business. He worked as a bookkeeper and sold candy prior to starting the business empire that would help cement the Rockefeller name in history: Standard Oil.

Europe’s first recorded influenza pandemic swept the continent in 1580

The 1580 influenza pandemic, traced from Asia to Africa and into Europe, became the first flu outbreak clearly documented across the continent—killing tens of thousands and highlighting influenza’s potential for rapid global spread.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The company building Irish pubs across the globe

The Irish Pub Company is a Dublin-based business specializing in designing Irish pubs around the world. The outfit has created over 2,000 custom Irish pubs in over 100 countries, each with its own distinctive flair incorporating essential features of the classic Irish pub. Read about the founders and their clients here.

Gambling funded America's early expansion

In the colonial era, lotteries were viewed as a voluntary tax to help fund infrastructure and capital projects. The idea came from Europe, which had used lotteries dating back to the 16th century. The image below is from a Massachusetts lottery in 1758.

Vanilla was originally thought to be an additive for chocolate

The classic flavor didn't stand on its own until the 17th century, when Queen Elizabeth I's apothecary began intentionally making vanilla sweets.

Francis Drake: favored English pirate who sailed around the world

Before becoming the global explorer that many know him as today, Sir Francis Drake was a pirate, merchant, and slave trader. This in-depth article dives into the life of Drake, who's commonly credited as the first person to circumnavigate the globe by ship successfully.

The first coffeehouse opened in Constantinople

Coffeehouses began opening in modern-day Istanbul sometime in the 1500s. These cafes quickly became invaluable spaces for gathering and exchanging news and ideas.

The idea of a check—or promissory note—goes back to antiquity

As long as traders have looked to pay in cash or coin, the idea of an IOU has been close behind. Clay tablets from ancient Mesopotamia (roughly modern Iraq) and Persia (Iran) suggest proto-checks were used at the time. Islamic traders innovated "sakks" in the 9th century, leading to the broader adoption during the Middle Ages in Europe.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

The 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spurring new Ebola vaccine development for the Bundibugyo species.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'