The ICF Collection of Historical Securities is a collaborative project between the International Center for Finance (ICF) and the Beinecke Library. Each document in the collection is, in effect, a contract between a company or country and an investor.
These securities represent important innovations in financial markets that are linked to new methods of raising capital and special events or periods in the history of capital markets. In 2005, the history of financial instruments was documented for the first time in an award-winning book named, "The Origins of Value: The Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Markets." Edited by ICF Fellows William N. Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst, this book traces the evolution of finance through 4,000 years of history, from the invention of interest in Mesopotamia and the origin of paper money in China to the creation of mutual funds, inflation-indexed bonds, and global financial securities.
Origins of Value is an on-line visual database of financial instruments, securities and documents related to the history of financial markets. Unless noted otherwise, these documents come from personal collections or the Yale Libraries.
Items from the collection include:
