Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Prologue -- Part I Equity Capital Prior to Joint-Stock Companies -- 1 Etymology and Legal Concepts -- 2 Equity Shares in Antiquity -- 3 Societas, Usury and Risk -- Part II From Commenda to Joint-Stock Company -- 4 The Evolution of Accounting...

A privilege of the power elite -- The democratization of investment -- Retirement and its funding -- New clients and new investments -- Fraud, market manipulation and insider trading -- Progress in managing cyclical crises -- The emergence of investment theory -- More new investment forms --...

A privilege of the power elite -- The democratization of investment -- Retirement and its funding -- New clients and new investments -- Fraud, market manipulation and insider trading -- Progress in managing cyclical crises -- The emergence of investment theory -- More new investment forms --...

Investing—the commitment of resources to achieve a return—affects individuals, families, companies, and nations, and has done so throughout history. Yet until the sixteenth century, investing was a privilege of only the elite classes. The story behind the democratization of investing is...