From a historical point of view, the main activity of investment banks is what today we call security underwriting. Investment banks buy securities, such as bonds and stocks, from an issuer and then sell them to the ?nal investors. In the eighteenth century, the main securities were bonds issued by governments. The way these bonds were priced and placed is extraordinarily similar to the system that inve- ment banks still use nowadays. When a government wanted to issue new bonds, it negotiated with a few prominent "middlemen" (today we would call them investment bankers). The middlemen agreed...

From a historical point of view, the main activity of investment banks is what today we call security underwriting. Investment banks buy securities, such as bonds and stocks, from an issuer and then sell them to the ?nal investors. In the eighteenth century, the main securities were bonds issued by governments. The way these bonds were priced and placed is extraordinarily similar to the system that inve- ment banks still use nowadays. When a government wanted to issue new bonds, it negotiated with a few prominent "middlemen" (today we would call them investment bankers). The middlemen agreed...