The Business Book

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Financial strategy

KEY DATES

1288 The first recorded share certificate is issued to the Bishop of Vasteras in Sweden by Stora Enso, a pulp and paper company.

17th century The Dutch East India Company issues shares, heralding the emergence of organized share trading.

1940 Peter Drucker writes on the need for businesses to balance short-term dividends and long-term reinvestment.

1961 Modigliani and Miller claim that paying or retaining dividends does not affect a business’s long-term performance. Their seminal work is later disputed, with several studies showing that dividend increases boost a company’s share price.

After calculating the ...