Amsterdam is home to the world’s oldest continuously operating stock exchange, founded in 1602.
The exchange was established by the Dutch East India Company, known as the VOC, to trade its shares and bonds. The VOC’s large voyages required substantial capital, so transferable ownership stakes helped spread risk among investors. This made the Amsterdam market an important early example of organized secondary trading in company securities.
The exchange was located in Amsterdam, the commercial center of the Dutch Republic. Its development supported a broader financial system involving merchants, brokers, banks, insurance, and international trade. The institution later became part of Euronext Amsterdam.
The answer is Amsterdam rather than London, although the London Stock Exchange is also historically important and dates from the eighteenth century. Antwerp had an earlier sixteenth-century bourse, but it did not remain continuously operating in the same way. The 1602 date refers specifically to the VOC’s founding of the Amsterdam exchange.