Summer Vacation

Over the summer I visited somewhere I’ve dreamed of going, the financial nexus of the early modern age, a center of early industrial innovation, and home to the highest number of bikes per capita–the Netherlands. Aside from incredibly beautiful canals and idyllic landscapes, the Netherlands, and Amsterdam especially, holds an incredible wealth of history. The most interesting¹ to me being the city's deep financial and industrial roots.

What makes Dutch financial history so interesting and important? Short answer, the stock exchange, and the genesis of the publicly traded company. The beginnings of the modern financial system, along with a series of breakthroughs, conceptually, physically, and otherwise, came out of the period we’re going to dive into known as the Dutch golden age.

The importance of the stock exchange to our current way of life was made abundantly clear on an earlier stop on my trip, New York City, where two of the world’s foremost exchanges, the NYSE and NASDAQ, are headquartered. Wealth, information, and future², now revolve around the axes that are stock exchanges. So let’s get to the bottom of their history, tracing the world’s financial roots through a series of key players, and see how they came to be.

Part I: Debt and the Sumerian Harvest

First, we branch all the way back to the beginning, to the true foundation of finance, to debt.

The conventional historical pipeline dictates that barter came first, then currency, and then the modern creation of credit and debt. But what the evidence tells us, is that the pipeline ran in the other direction, where debt and credit actually preceded barter. So let’s trace back these ancient roots and get to the bottom of our modern system.

Ancient Sumer, 3500 BCE:

Fields segment the landscape surrounding the village of Borsippa. The patchwork of crop and cracked earth is intersected occasionally by canals and dotted with small dwellings.

It’s an usually hot April afternoon, Ushar and his son Temen are hauling in their freshly harvested crop of barley, this is their last trip of this kind for the season. The two of them, sweat-stained and fatigued, stare at the mound they’ve accumulated next to their baked brick farmhouse, their expressions taught. It’ll barely last until next harvest. Ushar’s wife, Shuna, emerges from the naked doorway, 2 year old daughter in tow, unaware of their souring fortune. They gather around what should have been a bountiful crop. Together, the family prays to Enlil for good fortune, it will be a difficult year.

Adjacent to Ushar lies Asagkur, an enormous estate reaching and stretching along the east bank of the Euphrates, and employing what felt like half the village. It was said that on a clear day, standing at one end of the property you could almost see the tiny points of the wooden pillars marking the other end; but only on a clear day. The property belonged to a noble-merchant family, a family believed to be favored by the gods, or at least by the temple. Their large donations of grain and spoils certainly didn’t hurt their heavenly standing. The patriarch of the family? An ambitious and saintly nobleman by the name of Biluda. Awash with stored grain, the harsh growing season had not affected him and his 5 sons. This year their grain stores might overflow a little less, but not much else, proof of divine protection, as Biluda liked to see it.

Standing at his property line, Ushar gazed out at the unending paradise of Asagkur, as he had done many times before. He could spare no grain and he needed seed to plant for the next growing season. As was typical of the times, he was left with few options: starve, or in debt himself to someone able to spare the supplies he needed to survive.

In Ushar’s case, and in the many identical cases that would have occurred just like this, debt was utilized to avoid poverty, although many times this could have been the first step to such an unfortunate fate. Biluda would have used debts such as these to expand his grip on the local landscape, no doubt ascribing his success to some divine providence.

Debt was so widespread in these early days, and mired the lives of so many people within these ancient kingdoms, that in order to maintain order, kings would occasionally grace their people with a debt forgiveness day. These landmark events absolved debts of all kinds, allowing those subject to peonage a rare respite (and hopefully a dose of monarch-friendly, anti-rebellious medication).

As civilizations evolved, debt relief evolved along with it. Progressing into Greek and Roman times, debt relief became much more creditor friendly, into Medieval times, debt relief for those in distress was written into canon law. [Interestingly, if we think to today, this can be seen as some of the very first institutionalized bankruptcy laws. Something we very much only view through a modern lens had very ancient beginnings.]

But the thing about old times and social mobility was, well, there really wasn’t any relation at all. If you were born a peasant, a laborer, that’s what you were, your children would be, and their children, for about a thousand years or so. Debt was the common denominator, a treadmill that many an unfortunate soul were forced to walk.³

Ancient Sumer illuminates the very old, very deep root system of debt. One founded on interpersonal trust, communal relationships, and etched clay tablets . A system which, despite its flaws, provided the foundation for countless decades of branching and flourishing human civilization and progress.

Now, we move on to everyone’s favorite period in history (or at least one of my favorites), the Renaissance.

Part II: Genoa, Venice, and the Apennine Grip on Lending

Art, science, patronage, rebirth, philosophy, no matter what springs to mind, you can’t forget one, money. The Renaissance was an amazing time for Italy, a golden age where some of the greatest artists we’ve ever seen created some of the most iconic works the world has ever known. This was in large part thanks to wealthy families, patrons like the Medici, who sought to transmute their large fortunes into feats of beauty and artistry.

If we composed a heatmap of the Italy of the 14th through 17th century, we would find many different hotspots of innovation⁴, and investigating them we would find Italy’s various city states. Each had their differences, but in common for all was the institution of lending. This was the important building block that carried Italy to its cultural zenith, and relevant to us, a primal form of credit which we will presently investigate.

The stars of this new paradigm were two maritime republics, who through their rivalry, pushed global finance and monetary practice onto an expanded and increasingly global stage: Venice and Genoa.

Flanking the apennine peninsula, their symmetric geographical distribution precipitated their division of the Mediterranean market. Venice, situated on Italy’s eastern shore, operated mainly in the eastern context, while Genoa⁵ on the west took precedence in the occident.

The Most Serene Republic of Genoa, 1376 CE:

The harbor bell tolls openly as the sound of seagulls fills the fresh and salty Genoese air. Circling above the masts of the giant carracks, their cries are lost beneath the chorus of men hauling cargo from the ships, their shouts rising and falling in time with the creaking pulleys and the slap of heavy sacks striking the docks. Crates of silks and barrels of sugar form a winding passage through the bustling harbor, while heaps of gems and silver spill across the docks, gleaming in the Mediterranean sun. The air smells of salt and spice, the breeze carrying with it scents of Constantinople or the Levant and the sound of exotic dialects. Ships rock gently in their berths, their captains barking orders as dockhands hurry to unload the riches of distant shores.

Lorenzo Cattaneoa strolled down the bustling causeway, his intelligent eyes alert and sweeping from the hectic quays to the towering warehouses. Standing outside the door to his office, he watched as merchants clamored to unload their ships, quietly overseeing as letters of credit and promissory notes changed hands. It was then that a merchant from Cyprus approached him, his calloused hands underscoring the confidence in his stride. He needed financing to expand his fleet and trade in the lucrative markets of Alexandria.

Inside his office, Lorenzo examined the merchant’s history, his successes, his failures. The time was not one for caution, but risk, calculated and promising, and this was a worthy investment. Lorenzo tapped the parchment lightly, then signed his name. No chest of silver sat between them. No scales measured worth. The Cypriot exhaled, rolled the document, and tucked it into his coat. Outside, the bells tolled again.

As the man departed, Lorenzo turned his focus back to his ledger, pausing briefly to gaze out at the harbor. Below, another ship, its sails emblazoned with the cross of St. George, was setting out to sea. It was bound for England, carrying wool, alum, and the hopes of men. He watched it slip past the breakwater, its course set by words written in ink just hours before.

As he picked up his quill once more, Lorenzo smiled faintly.

In another time, men like the Cypriot might have begged for loans secured against meager holdings—perhaps land or ships themselves. The rise of the city-state precipitated a new trade in the currency of influence and trust, where credit was extended on the basis of reputation, potential, and a growing network of relationships. Another piece of the puzzle.

But what features of states like Genoa and Venice allowed for this beginning? The first, commitment mechanisms, second, public banks, and lastly, innovative financial instruments.

A fundamental aspect of our system and something we take for granted, commitments to repay debt underpin the whole lending institution. Without laws or practice dictating these commitments, Lorenzo could have no guarantee that he would ever see his money returned to him. History had in fact, shown the opposite. European monarchs, top of the social ladder, seen to be a safe, worthy investment, had anything but a sterling track record. In fact, there is a long, documented history of French, English, and Spanish kings defaulting on enormous sums of money⁶. Why would lenders take chances on smalltime merchants when the highest and mightiest of Europe couldn’t be trusted.

Genoa and Venice were able to put the books into the books, and create a cure for what had plagued lending as an institution for centuries, explicitly stating a law binding edict to set aside public revenue from tax and tariff to repay debts. What this produced, far from the disastrous defaults of fiscal antiquity, was a system which never defaulted on a principal⁷. For Genoa, these systems were put in place, but through a new conceptual institution, the public bank, on which we’ll zoom in later.

With the scaffolding of law, wealth could be spread and investment used to build brand new businesses and ventures. This would become common practice for the future financial giants of northern Europe, where a strong court and judiciary system remained the constant underpinning of a strong economy⁸.

However, prosperity was not guaranteed simply by strong legal institutions alone, and the second critical feature, building off a strong foundation, was the establishment of public banks. For Genoa this was the all important, republic aligned but fiercely independent, Banco di San Giorgio. Until the end of the 17th century, where it remained the financial center of the Catholic world, the bank provided luoghi, the principle bond for Genoese public debt.

Trust in the institution was such that luoghi were the lowest interest bearing investment of all securities dealing with public government debt. They were seen as rock solid investments and excellent vehicles to park wealth. The independence of San Giorgio safeguarded against many of the early challenges of government borrowing, as the Genoese republic, though closely linked to the bank, could only borrow based on current and projected expenditures relative to revenue like any other customer. But the relationship between the two was special, during periods of financial strain, terms became more favorable, and independent investigations assessed whether setbacks stemmed from opportunism or unforeseen, extraordinary events. The movement of centralization away from the state and to the bank, with government as the debtor instead of the creditor created what an admiring Machiavelli termed a “state within a state” dynamic.

Venice also featured a prominent banking system, but with two competing banks Banco di Rialto and Banco di Giro. In the end, di Giro ended up asserting itself as the financial forerunner because of close ties with Venetian government.

And now, to complete the fiscal triumvirate, we have the innovation of new financial instruments: the perpetual debt instrument and its marketability, the money market and its interaction with credit, and the social insurance system.

As we’ve already touched on a couple of these items, I’m just going to spotlight the most important: the marketability of debt instruments, or the debt for equity swap. This innovation, pioneered by the Italians is what will lead us to Amsterdam, to Antwerp, and to the stock exchange.

The swap allowed wealthy merchants to lend money to the bank in return for a share, or equity, in the bank itself. Instead of just holding a debt obligation, these merchants were entitled to a share of the profits the bank made on its various monopolies, taxes, and other revenues, in a way making it one of the first traded companies. The bank wasn’t bound to the fixed payments of a regular loan, giving them more flexibility. Investors, who now had a say in the management of the bank, were also more eager to help the state succeed, as the profits they reaped from their shares were directly tied to its performance. And more and more capital was drawn into the system, as the secondary market of trading these shares provided easy access to liquidity. This system of incentivization energized the Genoese economy and made it the hub of activity Lorenzo could participate in.

The linkage between the credit and money market also gave birth to the true global financial market as we think of it today. A Genoese banker buys a bill of exchange from a merchant in Venice at a discount (a long position), anticipating that the bill will be paid in Bruges. Simultaneously, the banker sells a bill of exchange to a merchant in Genoa who needs to pay a supplier in Florence (a short position). By balancing these positions, the banker profits from the exchange rate differences and provides liquidity to both merchants, facilitating trade across Europe.

Part III: North to Amsterdam

We’ve seen how banking played a major role in how the Genoese asserted themselves as the financial center of the catholic world, now we can look at how the Dutch did the same for the protestant world, and how they took it one step further.

The Wisselbank.

Already blessed with a cool name, the Wisselbank brought with it even greater centralization, and consequently, greater security. These centralizing efforts manifested themselves in a couple key initiatives: requiring large transactions to be settled through its own accounts, the creation of the banco florin, and the institution of the agio system.

These all stabilized the Dutch currency. Requiring large transactions to be settled in house meant the bank could enforce the use of legal coin and bullion. The creation of the banco florin, a stable unit of account separate from the fluctuating circulatory currency, meant there was no uncertainty when it came to trade, and the bank’s full reserve system created trust in a previously untrustworthy system. Finally the agio system, agio being the premium placed on the banco florin as opposed to the current florin in circulation. This had the related effects of incentivizing merchants to trade using bank money for large transactions and facilitating a secure and predictable exchange medium. Adjusting the agio, Dutch bankers could manage monetary stability in ways similar to how the Federal Reserve and modern equivalents do today.

On from banking, let’s talk about the excitement of early capitalism. The joint stock company, the stock exchange, and what really matters today⁹.

With a world becoming more connected, global trade and exploration exploding on unprecedented scales, the world needed capital. It needed the financing for large scale operations with larger possibilities for profit. The Dutch built off of what earlier Italian states had done, benefiting greatly from a more unified political body, and expanded on the idea of public debt, issuing annuities and bonds for state works. This laid the groundwork for one of the greatest corporations the world has ever seen.

The Dutch East India Company–joint stock #1. A revolutionary idea, selling shares of a venture to anyone willing to pay the current price. The Dutch unlocked unimaginable capital with this new innovation, and investors were able to share the untold risks, and untold profits, that came with the company's daring foreign ventures.

The shares were also tradeable. People who owned shares could find unprecedented liquidity on, you guessed it, the stock exchange, much more than you could have found for shares of San Giorgio. And now as a joint stock company, investors had a much clearer voice in its operation, and potential returns were much greater, as they were investing in a profit-driven corporation as opposed to a state-aligned public debt manager.

These factors combined to make the VOC a highly attractive investment, boosting its success and fueling the growth of the influence and power of the fledgling Dutch republic.

As briefly alluded to, this takes us to our main topic, the stock exchange, the twin spire that rose alongside the VOC. In its essence, the exchange was a regulated platform for trading shares, bonds, and other financial instruments. With set procedure and regular hours, the financial system became more and more structured and less mired with uncertainty.

In those days, if you had money, you wanted to have it in the Wisselbank and you wanted to be part of the VOC. It was an exciting time.

Amsterdam, 1614 CE:

Click, clack, click, clack, speedwalking, Willem van der Heijden wound his way through the maze of canals and stately buildings. Today was a big day. News of the VOC’s latest expedition had made its way back to the city; and it had been a resounding success. Along the Herengracht other merchants were emerging from their homes, their fine linens contrasting their wild alertness. Everyone needed to make it to the exchange.

Quickly approaching the foot of the building, scribes could be seen writing furiously, as people shouted orders, “100 shares of the VOC, 5000 guilders on the VOC!” The buzz, deafening. Willem elbowed his way through the throng, briefly catching sight of a huddled group of merchants near the corner. No time. Share prices were increasing by the minute, and being of ordinary Burgher standing, Willem was single minded in his pursuit of greater wealth.

“...not just shares,” one of the merchants grouped in the corner muttered, his hand shielding his mouth as if the very air might steal his secret. “A contract, binding, for the next voyage. Pay now, reap later, regardless of the outcome.” Willem froze. A contract for a voyage that hadn’t yet begun? It was audacious. Torn between the mob of brokers in the middle of the room, he edged closer, straining to hear more. The merchants spoke of “futures,” a way to hedge against risk or gamble on fortune without waiting for the ships to return. It was brilliance, madness—or both. His pulse quickened. Turning back toward the main body, he felt a hand grip his shoulder. “You heard nothing,” the voice hissed. Willem nodded, recognizing the voice immediately as Cornelis Van Acker. What would one of the most influential men in all of Amsterdam be doing discussing such radical instruments? Mind racing, he continued toward his usual broker. The game had just begun.

What Cornelis and his band of shady merchants were discussing was the birth of the futures contract, another exciting innovation of the time. A contract was the purchase of goods not yet material for a certain price, in the hopes that when the time came for the goods to be delivered, the price had moved such that the contract proved to be a better deal. This same principle could be applied to shares of the VOC. The pieces of our modern system keep falling into place. Unfortunately, as with all the novelty of Dutch creations, it came with its own issues, and I’m sure dutch contemporaries were just as bewildered by the runaway speculation that the innovation enabled, as we are today with modern financial crises¹⁰.

Along with finance on a broader scale, the Amsterdam stock exchange went through a series of evolutions as well. At its inception, shareholders of the VOC traded and exchanged ownership of shares in public forums. St. Olaf’s Chapel¹¹ and on New Bridge being two popular spots. In 1607, city officials decided to build a proper exchange, finishing its construction in 1611. What’s more, and what’s another step toward what we know today, it was also decided that the exchange would have set hours of opening and closing (not open on Sundays of course), and that all trading done outside the building's walls were “null and void.” Apart from bringing structure to an erratic system, these decrees also increased trading volume, as concentrating brokers and traders into a confined space increased the odds of finding people to strike deals and negotiate transactions with. A win, win, and a principle still operated under today.

The system wasn’t perfect though, and traders, eager as they were to build fortunes, were sporadic in their adherence to the stipulations of the city. Trading in coffee houses, Dam Square, and Jodenbreestraat (Amsterdam’s Jewish neighborhood) continued, and it would take stricter regulation coming from subsequent nations and evolutions for the exchange to truly become what we know it to be today.

The Beurs van Berlage, the one still standing and the one I visited while I was in Amsterdam, was the third exchange building constructed in the city. The Hendrick de Keyser Exchange, the first official building referenced above (ironically built in a repurposed side chapel from an old monastery), was demolished in 1835, replaced by the Roman-inspired Zocher Exchange built on the same site. When the Berlage was opened in 1903, the Zocher, ultimately deemed a failure, was torn down.

What stood the test of these various constructions however, were the key principles that outlasted the Dutch golden age and any vestige from the city itself: transparency, liquidity, and trust. The subsequent London, Paris, New York, and other major exchanges were built upon this bedrock.

And now we depart, thank you Amsterdam, and tot ziens.

Back to Now

What’s become of the old exchange building you may ask? A conference center and a seafood restaurant. What that says about the evolution of finance…can certainly be contemplated. Digitization has brought with it many changes, the financial sector chief among those affected. As processes and pipelines have moved on, the ancestors of what we have today increasingly convey more a nostalgic simplicity of earlier days, rather than a commanding or foreboding sense of what such structures represented during their time. What better place to contemplate such things than over freshly caught sea bass¹².

Amsterdam itself is also a beautiful city, and it is filled with beautiful things. One of the advantages of prosperity is the production of great works of art. As we saw in the Italian city states, and as is consistent with Amsterdam, patronage leads to many wonders. While we were there we saw the likes of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Vermeer, and many others.

From the Clay Tablet to the Blockchain

I think it’s about time for some computer science.

What really interests me in this whole financial investigation is the modern revolution that we are now in the midst of, Web3. As we can see, the chain of finance stretches incredibly far back, and it is the incremental changes that have advanced us to where we are today. We are now seeing the next step in that string of incremental changes. The main concern of today’s revolution: ownership.

The evolution of financial systems—from the intimate, community-based exchanges of Ancient Sumer, to the centralized banking of Genoa, and the open yet institutionally controlled markets of Amsterdam—reflects humanity’s ongoing quest to balance trust, efficiency, and accessibility in finance. Each system addressed the limitations of its predecessor, but all relied on some form of centralized authority or intermediary to function.

Enter Web3 and blockchain technology, which have introduced an entirely new paradigm. As a computer science student, I am compelled to try and explain how these things work¹³.

1. First off we have the actual blockchain, a linked list of blocks where each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. Merkle trees (a type of hash tree) ensures immutability through its ability to efficiently verify pieces of data without needing to process the entire chain.

2. Each node in the related network (Bitcoin, Ethereu, Solana, etc.) has a copy of this blockchain (linked list), becoming a node by running the associated software and adhering to the various protocols stipulated by each network.

3. Within the chain, we have consensus algorithms. These work to establish a single truth, ensuring trust in an inherently trustless system. Some examples would be Proof of Work (PoW) algorithms, which employ computational puzzles, ensuring nodes consume energy in order to add a new block onto the chain. Another is Proof of Stake (PoS), which relies on validators who stake cryptocurrency to participate in the validation of pending transactions to create new blocks. These work to make sure everyone in the network follows the same protocols.

4. And then we have the smart contracts, the pieces of code that actually take action, transferring assets, or making payments, all the typical things you would expect from say, a bank. These are written in Turing-complete languages like Solidity, and are deployed and executed autonomously when predefined conditions are met, enabling decentralized applications (dApps) that run on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.

5. Web3 integrates these technologies with IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) which is a decentralized version of HTTP. Instead of one server containing the files for say, a website, files stored with IPFS are distributed among all nodes in the network, right up blockchain’s alley.

6. And then we have oracles (awesome name). These mechanisms or services fetch data from the outside world, allowing smart contracts to execute based on real happenings. Think, “make an insurance payment if a flight is delayed by more than 2 hours” we need outside data to execute this contract, and that's what oracles provide.

String these all together and we find blockchain technology disrupts the centralized trajectory we’ve been investigating through our historical examples. Now, anyone, anywhere, can participate in these activities. Consumer products from the likes of Coinbase and others have democratized access to trading digital assets, lending, and borrowing in the decentralized finance (DeFi) world.

In a sense, we’ve actually come full circle: a return to the personal accountability of Sumer on a global scale, while addressing the inefficiencies and inequalities of centralized systems like those in Genoa and Amsterdam.

But, of course, this is not without its challenges. Volatility, fraud, and regulatory uncertainty are just a couple things that result from a lack of centralized authority. And the emotional detachment of modern finance is amplified through the use of impersonal blockchain transactions.

So Web3, while certainly a revolution, in many ways represents a continuation in the story of finance. Building on our time tested lessons, while reimagining these principles for a digital age. Today, we have seen a recent renaissance surrounding web3, and cryptocurrencies, so whether they will fulfill their promise of a more equitable and efficient financial system is an interesting question I hope to be contemplating from the front row.

The Financial Animal

As a final note to place into perspective the importance of finance, not only on the evolution of civilization, but on our evolution as a species, is the first ever recorded instance of the written word: a transaction of barley. And the very first known author: an accountant.

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Sources

• Debt: The First 5,000 Years David Graeber ↗
• Italian city-states and financial evolution Michele Fratianni & Franco Spinelli ↗
• Did Genoa and Venice Kick a Financial Revolution in the Quattrocento? Michele Fratianni & Franco Spinelli ↗
• The Big Problem of Large Bills: The Bank of Amsterdam and the Origins of Central Banking Stephen Quinn & William Roberds ↗
• The VOC and Amsterdam’s first exchange building Lodewijk Petram ↗
• Beurs Van Berlage Website ↗
• Decentralizing File Sharing: The Potential of Blockchain and IPFS Jyotsna Anthal, Shakir Choudhary & Ravikumar Shettiyar ↗
• Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System Satoshi Nakamoto ↗
• A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform Vitalik Buterin ↗

Footnotes

1. Not to be understated is the magnificent art on feature in the city as well. Some of my favorite works of all time were on display, including the famous Syndics of the Draper’s Guild. ↩

2. The derivative definitely, but also the actual futures of traders, investors, and corporations now hinge on market fluctuation. ↩

3. A treadmill which people would become cognizant of every now and then, attempt to stop, but end up running again nevertheless. Thanks Karl. ↩

4. The Medici and Florence were far and away the most famous, but other great producers of the age such as Galileo or Rapheal took sponsorship from other wealthy families. ↩

5. Why you ask, do I focus on Genoa for my story? Simple, Venice gets enough credit (pun intended), let’s take a look at the underdog. Any investigation reveals striking similarities, so let’s put a new city-state in the limelight. ↩

6. The most famous default was that of Edward III in the 1340s, who contributed to the bankruptcies of the Florentine Bardi and Peruzzi banks (Hunt 1990). ↩

7. There were a couple instances of interest being delayed, but as with all great systems, they earn the name by being better than their predecessors, or at least the best of the time. A delayed interest payment wouldn’t ruin anyone’s geo-political ambitions. ↩

8. Life, Liberty, and Property the Declaration of Independence almost read, until some last minute Jefferson tweaks gave the young colonies a rebranded sense of idealism. ↩

9. This is a joke of course. Central banking is deeply intriguing and a riveting subject for a Sunday afternoon. ↩

10. In this vein of crisis, the Tulip Mania of the 1630s is often cited as an early example of a speculative bubble, creating an early parallel to the housing crisis of 2008. Tulip bulbs, which took months to grow, and served as status symbols in the Dutch republic, were traded using contracts. When confidence collapsed in 1637, prices plummeted, leaving many investors ruined. ↩

11. Funny, how the trading of such speculative items had its beginnings in a religious setting. From the outset, trading and financial prosperity for the Dutch burghers had an almost sacred quality. The divine and profane, the innovative and the traditional, meeting at a crossroads in world history, what’s not to love. ↩

12. Unfortunately, we were not able to dine in the predictably overbooked establishment, but enjoyed seeing the very typical gilded-age-esque decoration and design. Perhaps in some ways it is only natural that such features be on display in what can rightly be considered the birthplace of modern capitalistic excess. ↩

13. For those interested in the nitty gritty, reading the original bitcoin and ethereum white papers is the best place to learn about the beginnings of the movement and the specifics on how the technology meshes to create the excitement we have today. ↩