World's oldest bond celebrates 400 years with a €300 payout

Two representatives of the New York stock exchange were in Utrecht this week, to pick up a some €300 in cash, payable on a 400 year-old bond issued to pay for repairs to a dyke. The bond, said to be the oldest in the world, was issued on December 10, 1624, to fund flood defences after a dyke breach in January that year. “The Leydijk broke more often, but this time the water reached Amsterdam, so it needed to be...