The History of Stock Quotes

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2021-08-02 23:00:05

On 10th of April 1814, almost one hundred thousand troops fought the battle of Toulouse in Southern France. The war had ended on April 6th. Messengers delivering news of Napoleon Is abdication and the end of the war wouldn’t reach Toulouse until April 12th.

The issue was not the lack of a rapid communication system in France, it just hadn’t expanded far enough yet. France had an elaborate semaphore system. Arranged all around the French countryside were buildings with mechanical flags which could be rotated to transmit specific characters to the next station in line. When the following station showed the same flag positions as this one, you knew the letter was acknowledged, and you could show the next character. This system allowed roughly one character to be transmitted per minute, with the start of a message moving down the line at almost 900 miles per hour. It wouldn’t expand to Toulouse until 1834 however, twenty years after the Napoleonic battle.

It’s should be no secret that money motivates. Stock trading presents one of the most obvious uses of fast long-distance communication. If you can find out about a ship sinking or a higher than expected earnings call before other traders, you can buy or sell the right stocks and make a fortune.