Piazza Affari has not always been the only Italian stock exchange. Until 1997, when they were unified into the Milan one, there were 10 stock exchanges in our country. And one of the most important was the Rome Stock Exchange, which was founded in the Papal States on December 24, 1802, exactly two centuries and 17 years ago. It was the third Stock Exchange to be established in Italy after those of Venice (1630) and Trieste (1775) and from the XNUMXth century it was second in importance only to that of Milan.
The first headquarters of the Rome Stock Exchange was the Archiginnasio of the Palazzo della Sapienza, the Roman university school. Exchanges they were limited and operators, brokers and bankers, were very few: in 1812 there were just 19 members.
In the 800s the Stock Exchange was moved near Piazza Venezia, to Palazzo Valentini (in recent years if of the Province of Rome, now the Metropolitan City). After that, the definitive move came in 1831 Temple of Hadrian. It is still located here today Chamber of Commerce of Rome, which at the time had the responsibility of managing the Stock Exchange.
After 1870, with the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy, the Stock Exchange had to adapt to the regulations already implemented in all the other trading centers present in the country.
despite everything, operators they were always few: in 1925 they were 39, while in 1969 they reached the maximum number of 70.
As regards the securities traded, during the XNUMXth century the Rome Stock Exchange specialized in the trading of government bonds need shares of real estate companies. According to a survey commissioned in 1976 by the Senate, 17,2% of Italian public bonds were traded in the Roman square.
Only in 1991 the reform was launched which abolished the calls to introduce telematic exchanges. But it was a short story: just six years later came the unification of all the Italian financial centers in a single private company, Borsa Italiana, based in Milan.
