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Dear Sir or Madame,
We welcome you to our journey through four centuries of financial history. In the cata-
logue at hand we present the 50 finest, most interesting, for the economic development
most important and rarest stocks and bonds of our spring auction. The offered stocks and
bonds helped to finance bold projects, helped to make visions come true and influenced
the course of history. All offered stocks and bonds were needed to finance these projects.
Behind them were venturous investors on the one hand and entrepreneurs willing to take
risks on the other hand. Of what avail is the best idea, if you have not enough money to
realize it successfully? And what avail is a huge amount of money, if you invest it into
subprime projects?
Let’s start our journey in the year 1720. Dealing with far countries in Asia and Africa dominated business at that time. Countries like
Great Britain, the Netherlands and Spain obtained wealth through their trade activities. Many sent ships came back with a large load
of spices, silk and precious metals. Other expeditions failed. The ships sunk or were raided by pirates. Risks and profits were close
together. What was more helpful than joint-stock companies? The shareholders ran together into financial and shared the profits.
The meaning of the world trade was released by the building of canals and railways at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the
19th century. Here we can see the same picture again: Investors who had vision and were ready to lose money joint together and
financed projects with a joint-stock company. That not every project was a success shows the Company of Proprietors of the South-
ampton and Salisbury Canal Navigation. It was incorporated in 1795. But only four of the planned 13 miles of canal were finished at
the beginning of 1803. The company had problems to raise more money. It had to stop collecting toll by 1804. The canal was closed
and the company was liquidated in 1808. A fiasco for the shareholders.
More successful were many railway projects, which competed successfully with the canals
at the mid of the 19th century. I like to point out especially the Gotthard railway. We profit
from the courage and investment of the shareholders still nowadays. We can realize another
thing at the Gotthard railway: Beside enough money, ambitious projects need a powerful
figure which invests all of its time, power and connections into the project. In case of the
Gotthard railway Alfred Escher was this personality who pushed the idea of the Gotthard
railway.
Promising ideas need two more factors to be a success: energy and money. The mining
industry flourished at the mid of the 19th century. Many banks were established at that
time. They supplied the companies with money. The joint-stock companies had their first
boom in Germany in the 1870th. Small breweries, sugar-plants, shipping companies and
tobacco companies were incorporated as joint-stock companies. They were found in almost
all industries.
Stocks and bonds were also used to finance social and cultural projects. Mainly zoos profited from this trend. Zoo shares of both
zoos in small cities like Münster or large cities like Copenhagen have one in common: they are designed superb. The share certificate
was a kind of marketing instrument. The same is true for the shares of the Neue Theater-AG. The proceedings from the share issue
were used to co-finance the building of the Alte Oper in Frankfort on the Main. Even the king of the silentfilm, Charlie Chaplin,
incorporated his own joint-stock company. With the Chaplin Studios Inc. he financed his studios in Hollywood, where all Chaplin
films were produced between 1918 and 1952.
You see, many projects, which were financed by issuing stocks and bonds, are responsible that
our world looks like it looks.
With this we are at the end of our little journey through four centuries of financial history. We
sincerely invite you to the auction of these 50 contemporary witnesses of the bull and bear mar-
kets. The auction will take place on 10 November 2012 starting at 3.30 p.m. in Würzburg. Use
this unique opportunity and write your own chapter of financial history.
Sincerely yours,
Matthias Schmitt
Introduction