Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons here. And follow along on TikTok here for video Summer School. Once upon a time, every business was a small business. It was run by the owner, maybe the spouse and the kids. Maybe they borrowed money from friends and relatives, but there was only so big it could get. Then came what can only be described as the big bang of economics. Over the span of a few decades, people figured out a way for businesses to sell ownership shares – otherwise known as stocks – and let people trade those shares. There was suddenly money to buy machines and expand. Today, we head to the Netherlands around the year 1600. First, we'll visit the bridge in Amsterdam where some of the first stock trading took place. Then we track down the Dutch water company that's the source of the oldest "living" bond. It's the origin of stocks and bonds and the stock market and it leads directly to many of the financial innovations that we still have today. This series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Audrey Dilling. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Sofia Shchukina. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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Welcome back, everyone, to Planet Money Summer school.
Economic history of the world.
I should put some echo on that.
Here's my coffee mug.
Economic history of the world.
Thousands of years of learning squeezed into eight simple lessons.
In each show, we will tackle the biggest questions in economics by going back to the moment when we first started asking them.
I'm Robert Smith, and this is lesson three, the birth of finance.
Every Wednesday till Labor Day, we are going to take you on a chronological journey to meet the geniuses and nerdowells that created the economy as we know it.
By the end, youll at least know who to blame.
Today we tackle finance.
Its more than stocks and bonds and bros high fiving and fleece vests, although it is that.
Its also a sophisticated system for moving money through time and space, channeling resources in theory to just the right person and project to make ideas into reality.
And, yeah, also make people rich.
Its a system thats evolved over centuries.
Once upon a time, every business was a small business.