ABOUT
Overview
1637 Fund is a private investment office established in 2023 by an Australian entrepreneur and investor.
The fund invests globally in debt, equity and private markets, with the objective of compounding capital over a fifty-year investment horizon.
Why 1637?
Founded in 1602, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) received an exclusive license from the Dutch Republic to conduct trade with Asia. When raising initial capital they offered shareholders the ability to transfer their shares to a third party at their discretion - a novel concept at the time. As the company's value rose, early backers looked to cash in by selling their shares in makeshift open-air markets that eventually coalesced into the Amsterdam Stock Exchange - the world's first modern financial exchange.
The VOC became the first company to establish shareholder rights, a dividend policy and a board of directors - pillars of modern corporate governance today. It also became the first company to be sold short and to experience shareholder activism.
The VOC’s valuation peaked at around $7.9 trillion in today's U.S. dollars. This led to substantial prosperity for its shareholders and ushered in the Dutch Golden Age. A nation's newfound wealth flowed back into the financial markets as investors looked for the next big thing. In this era, tulips quickly emerged as a popular investment and a symbol of wealth. Forward contracts that were previously used by farmers were quickly hijacked by speculators. The price of a tulip rose tenfold in the last few months of 1636, with bulbs costing as much as a high end mansion. In February of 1637 the music stopped and prices crashed over 90 per cent.
1637 thus perfectly epitomises how markets can create wealth over decades and erase it in days.
A few years before the tulip crash, Dutch explorers established a colony called New Amsterdam in what is today the southern-most tip of Manhattan Island. For protection, a wooden palisade was erected on the colony’s northernmost border. While the palisade did not survive the English invasion many years later, the street where it once stood was named in its honour - Wall Street. One can imagine the Dutch’s financial acumen and appreciation of markets rubbed off on this colony and has helped shape the world we live in today.