The history of wall street

An American best-selling book about Wall Street, "Where is the Customer's Yacht", quoted a passage like this:

"There is an old and hostile joke in America that Wall Street is a street with a river at one end and a grave at the other."

Geographically, Wall Street is indeed a small street no more than 500 meters long. Its easternmost point is the East River in new york, and its westernmost point is Trinity Church and a cemetery on Wall Street, where the first US Treasury Secretary Hamilton is buried. The name Wallstreet comes from a wooden fence wall built by Dutch immigrants who settled in new york in their early years to resist the British invasion. On the one hand, this joke shows that Wall Street, which is extremely rich, is only a small street geographically; On the other hand, it reflects that American society has always had a dislike and ridicule for Wall Street. In many people's minds, Wall Street is a selfish, greedy and sinful place.

Where is the client's yacht? Published in 1940, it tells the story of Wall Street in the early 20th century. The writer is a famous Wall Street stock trader named Frederick Schwayder. He left Wall Street after he was completely tired of life on Wall Street, and wrote "Where is the client's yacht? This book caused a sensation. After quoting the joke, he added: "Although this joke is vivid, it is not complete. It ignores the' kindergarten' between the two. " What he means is that Wall Street is a "kindergarten" between a river and a graveyard. Why do you say that? Because he thinks that in the daily ups and downs of the stock market, what people on Wall Street do is very stupid and ridiculous.

Coincidentally, 50 years later, on 1989, there appeared a best-selling book about Wall Street, The Poker Game of Liars, written by michael lewis. Like Schwayder, he is an excellent trader and left Wall Street after getting tired of life on Wall Street. Michael lewis also quoted this passage at the beginning of the book The Poker Game of Liars.

The two books are 50 years apart, and the image of Wall Street doesn't seem to have improved much in these 50 years. In the eyes of many Americans, Wall Street is still a playground for money and a paradise for the rich.

Wall street in the true sense

Although geographically, Wall Street is small, but in a real sense, Wall Street is synonymous with American capital market and even financial services.

Undoubtedly, when we say Wall Street now, we mean the real Wall Street, which has already gone far beyond this small street and the most prosperous downtown area in new york, including new york Financial Service Zone, and developed into a financial service network all over the United States. In today's world economic integration, Wall Street has crossed national boundaries and spread all over the world. Therefore, the real Wall Street includes not only hundreds of thousands of people who are busy on Wall Street every day, but also fund managers in Florida, venture capitalists in California's "Silicon Valley" or traders of American investment banks in London. In fact, as the floorboard of American financial services, Wall Street has actually represented a self-contained financial empire.

Classical political science defines a world power as "a country whose interests must be considered by other countries." Therefore, although today's Russian economy is very backward, it is still a world power. By the same token, Wall Street itself has become a world power, although it is not a sovereign country. According to the data of the Federal Reserve in 2004, the size of the American capital market (also known as the securities market, usually including the stock market and the bond market) has far exceeded the gross national product of the United States. In 2004, the market value of American stock market reached 17.2 trillion US dollars, which was 143% of American GDP( 12 trillion US dollars). The market value of the US bond market reached $36.9 trillion, accounting for 308% of the US GDP. In early 2000, these two figures were even higher.

2001September 1 1 day, the World Trade Center in new york Financial District near Wall Street was attacked by terrorists, and the new york Stock Exchange stopped trading. At this moment, the American economy and even the world economy are almost stagnant, which shows the influence of Wall Street as a financial empire.

Wall Street in History

Wall Street has a history of more than 300 years, and it is intertwined with other major events in American economic and social development. In short, it can be roughly divided into three historical stages, interspersed with two transitional periods and three wars, and its development is also influenced by two tit-for-tat ideas.

The first stage: childhood on Wall Street

The childhood of Wall Street is from 1653 to1the end of the 9th century. At first, new york was a Dutch colony, where Dutch immigrants lived. At that time, it was called New Amsterdam. The year when the New Amsterdam City Council was founded, namely 1653, is generally considered as the beginning of Wall Street's childhood.

The early rapid development of new york and the rise of new york's financial industry have a considerable relationship with the Dutch business spirit. Although the early germination of capitalism began in Italy during the Renaissance, the real capitalism was gradually perfected in Holland in the middle of17th century. At that time, the Netherlands formed a very complete financial system, including banks, stock exchanges, credit, insurance, limited liability companies and so on. The development of the financial system gave birth to the rapid development of the Dutch economy, which once made this small European country among the world powers. When the Dutch immigrated to North America, they brought the capitalist business spirit to New Amsterdam.

1664, New Amsterdam was captured by the British, and the city was transferred from the Dutch to the British, and was named new york (new york for short) as a gift to the Duke of York, the younger brother and heir of King charles ii of England at that time. But the people of new york have maintained the Dutch culture of loving business and making money. Today, people who work and live in new york can also appreciate the money-oriented culture in new york. In a sense, the higher the degree of commercialization, the more cities tend to admire money.

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