Stocks - Shares

The concepts involving stocks and shares are often baffling to people. However, it is not quite as complex as people make out. At its most basic, a share of stock is a share of ownership in a corporation, when someone owns more than one such stock, they are known as a shareholder. These shares can take a number of forms and can influence whether or not a person owning them can vote in corporate decisions. Like most things in our society, however, the concepts involved have a long history dating back to Roman times and play large role in shaping everyday life.

The Roman Empire contracted many of its services to private groups called publicani. Shares in these were called socci when the cooperatives were large, and particulae for smaller companies (like todays Over-The-Counter shares). Records are small for this time but there is an account of it in Edward Chancellor’s Devil Take The Hindmost. In this book he refers to speculation that these shares were very widespread, possibly causing the first of what is known as speculative bubble in stocks, when price of stocks rise and become overvalued by any measure. From the Middle Ages onwards the first company to issue shares of stock was the Dutch East India Company in 1606. This is notable as it is of great interest to historians due to the legalities of their actions.


But what about today How are shares managed in modern Britain First it should be noted that shares can be held not just in stock, but also in mutual funds, limited partnerships, and REIT's (Real Estate Investment Trust), but shares in stock are the most well known forms and there are some different versions of it in the modern day: Common Stock: This normally carries voting rights that can be used in corporate decisions.


Preferred Stock: This does not typically carry a voting right, but the owner of preferred stock is legally allowed receive a certain amount of dividend (payments made by a corporation to its shareholder members) before any can be issued to others. One of the largest stock exchanges in the world is the LSE, or London Stock Exchange near St. Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London. Founded in 1801 it deals with the stocks of around 3,233 corporations, showing the sheer size and infrastructure that shares have today.