Zurich, in Switzerland, began to emerge as a banking nation as late as the 19^th century and the many family based firms that were formed around that time relied very heavily on funding and financing from the banks alone. This dependency on the banks continued through the whole of the 19^th century and into the 20^th century. It was only with the introduction of the trade sector that a need for security trading arose. It is widely accepted that the building of the stock exchange buildings in 1873 saw the formation of the Zurich stock exchange; the building was erected on the newly named Borsenstrasse and trading activities first began in 1877 a year after the forming of the Zurich Stock Exchange Association.

The end of the 19^th century.

By the end of the 19^th century stocks had begun trading and there was a lot of call for shares in railways and banks; the 3 years proceeding 1888 saw the forming of 51 banks and 24 railways. However, a large loss, caused by the rejection of a Caribbean railway purchase led to a decline and the stock market only picked up again at the beginning of the 20^th century. Further stock market crashes in 1907 and 1912 led to the creation of the “Law on the Professional Trade In Securities” being written ensuring that the Canton of Zurich had greater supervisory powers over the stock exchange. This supervisory roles also brought with it a charge levied by the Canton for their services; the equivalent of an early brokerage charge.

The 20^th century.

The 1920s saw a massive increase in the number of shares being traded and this wasn’t greatly affected by ‘Black Friday’ in 1929. In fact, it was only the demise of the German stock exchange activity that saw another slump in activity for the Zurich Stock Exchange. For 2 years the forward market and premium deals were stopped until 1933 when the recovery of prices on Wall Street saw the mood of the stock exchange improve dramatically with a massive boom in 1936.

The development of the Zurich Stock Exchange.

The Zurich Stock Exchange has tried to develop their business on the back of their four basic principles. They aim to set new standards within the stock exchange marketplace, they want to show and maintain integrity and clarity, they encourage positive forward thinking from all members of their staff and they want to be transparent in their communications and business. They have tried to stick by these factors throughout their history and they intend to take these values into the future with them as well.

Even though they are still a fledgling when compared to some of the stock exchanges of the world they have tried to integrate the systems, hardware and infrastructure required to build and develop into the future and through all of this carry their four factors with them.