This book takes you through some of the defining periods that have formed today’s financial markets. Before that, the opening chapter outlines the development of the modern investment fund industry in the 20th century. The book describes several defining moments that have shaped today’s financial markets, such as:

• Fibonacci’s important contribution to modern finance from 1202

• The 14th century Florentine multinational merchant banks

• How the mighty 15th century Medici bankers financed the Renaissance

• The rise of stock, bond and derivative markets

• The surprising origins of the word ‘Beurs’ (Bourse, Borsa)

• How the Bank of Amsterdam became the world’s 17th century safe haven

• Two remarkable and colorful investment books from 1688 and 1720

• The parallels between the stock market bubbles of the 1690s and 1990s

• The Lehman-like crisis of 1763

• The birth of the mutual fund in 1774

• The first emerging markets crisis in the 1820s

• How the Rothschild bankers created the first international bonds in 1818.