This document provides background information on capital markets and the history of stock exchanges. It discusses how capital markets help companies and governments raise long-term funds. It then gives a brief history of stock exchanges, noting that the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) established in 1875 is Asia's first stock exchange. It traces the origins of stock brokers back to the 12th century in France and discusses the earliest stock exchanges that emerged in the 13th-14th centuries in Belgium and Italy. The document emphasizes that the Dutch started the first joint stock companies and the first company to issue stocks and bonds was the Dutch East India Company in 1602 on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.