Heroes and Villains of Finance
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Bertrand Russell once famously said that “Western philosophy begins with Thales”. Does Western finance also? Although more renowned for his philosophy and mathematics, the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Thales was an active figure in business in his town of Miletus. Known as one of the seven sages of Greece Thales of Miletus provides us with the earliest known example of what we now know as options trading. .
.. One autumn, Thales predicted that favourable weather the following year would result in an above average harvest and so during the winter he negotiated with local olive press owners for the option to exercise the right to use a number of olive presses in Miletus the following year. When spring arrived, his weather forecast proved correct, upon which he exercised his ‘options' before proceeding to rent out the olive presses at a much higher price than what he paid.
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Whilst today, the ‘option' industry has developed into a vast, complex market, its underlying reasoning remains the same as it was when Thales conceived it: an instrument that grants the holder the right (but not the obligation) to engage in a specific transaction, at a specific time, for a specific price.
Legend has it that one night whilst working Chanakya was visited by a Chinese traveller. Chanakya immediately extinguished the oil lantern that he was working with and lit another. When the Chinese traveller asked if it was an Indian custom to do so, Chanakya is said to have responded “No my dear friend. There is no such custom. Actually, when you entered, I was working. It was an official work, pertaining to my empire, my nation. The oil filled in that lamp has been bought from the money from the National Treasury. Now, I am talking to you. This is a personal and friendly conversation, not related to my nation; so I cannot use the lamp now, as it will lead to wastage of the money of the National Treasury. Hence, I extinguished that lamp and lit this other lamp, since the oil in this lamp has been bought from my personal money.”
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