Note 6 — Chapter I · THE FUNCTIONS OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE

Bourses or Exchanges, as we know them to-day, undoubtedly owe their origin to the Jews. M. Vidal’s scholarly work explains that the persecutions which those untiring and courageous merchants experienced in Spain after the expulsion of the Moors caused them to emigrate to Holland, where the market-place was called Change (Exchange) and where in later years there was to be established, as a result of their labors, the famous Bank of Amsterdam, which was for a century the foremost institution of its kind in the world. The modern use of the word Change or Exchange is thus plainly traced. The word Bourse originated at Bruges, where, according to one authority, merchants gathered at the house of one of their number known as van der Burse. Other historians state that the word originated from the three purses (bourses) carved on the gable of the house in which the meetings were held.