Editing Initial public offering (section)

==History==
The earliest form of a company which issued ''public shares'' was the case of the ''[[publican]]i'' during the [[Roman Republic]], although this claim is not shared by all modern scholars.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Poitras |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Geranio |first2=Manuela |date=2016 |title=Trading of shares in the Societates Publicanorum? |url=https://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/eeh_roman-shares_16.pdf |journal=Explorations in Economic History |volume=61 |pages=95–118 |doi=10.1016/j.eeh.2016.01.003 |s2cid=155816750 |via=Elsevier}}</ref> Like modern joint-stock companies, the ''publicani'' were legal bodies independent of their members whose ownership was divided into shares, or ''parts''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Malmendier |first=Ulrike |date=December 2009 |title=Law and Finance "at the Origin" |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.47.4.1076 |journal=Journal of Economic Literature |language=en |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=1076–1108 |doi=10.1257/jel.47.4.1076 |issn=0022-0515}}</ref> There is evidence that these shares were sold to public investors and traded in a type of [[over-the-counter (finance)|over-the-counter]] market in the [[Roman Forum|Forum]], near the [[Temple of Castor and Pollux]]. The shares fluctuated in value, encouraging the activity of speculators, or ''quaestors''. Mere evidence remains of the prices for which ''parts'' were sold, the nature of initial public offerings, or a description of stock market behavior. ''Publicani'' lost favor with the fall of the [[Roman Republic|Republic]] and the rise of the [[Roman Empire|Empire]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/deviltakethehindmost.htm|title=Books & Reading: Chapter One|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=27 November 2016}}</ref>

In the United States, the first IPO was the public offering of [[Bank of North America]] around 1783.<ref name="Moaf.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.moaf.org/exhibits/americas_first_ipo/index |title=Exhibits&nbsp;— America's First IPO&nbsp;— Museum of American Finance |publisher=Moaf.org |access-date=12 July 2012}}</ref>