stock market

trade fair

To the Ter Buerse house in Bruges, named after the family Vander Buerse, Van der Beurse, Vander Burse, De la Bourse, De Bursa, De Borsa.

The family belonged to the Bruges patriciate, its coat of arms was made of gold, a red slant bar loaded with three silver purses
(money bags). The Van der Buerses, who appear in the annals from 1257, were influential brokers and innkeepers for more than two centuries. According to Jos Maréchal in his study History of the Bruges stock exchange, foreign merchants stayed in their inns and stored their wares there.

Often, as brokers, they also acted as intermediaries in the transactions of those foreigners. Their inns bore names such as Ter Ouder Buerse, Ter Buerse and De Cleene Buerse and were all located in or near the current Vlamingenstraat.

From this situation, which is very reminiscent of the origins of Lloyd's, the first Bruges trade fair was created. With the decline of Bruges, trade shifted to Antwerp.

A trade fair was already established there in 1485. Following the example of Bruges, trade fairs were also established in the sixteenth century in Venice, Genoa, Naples, Palermo, Lyon, Amsterdam and London.

However, some linguists maintain that the word "trade purse" derives from "purse" in the sense of "money pouch."

> (see also Lloyd's)

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