Events from 1609

Amsterdam Stock Exchange opens - first official stock exchange with regular trading in VOC shares

Hugo Grotius writes Mare Liberum - freedom of the seas doctrine, foundation of international law

Bank of Amsterdam begins registering partnership agreements - creating public record of partnership terms and partners' authority

St. Frances of Rome canonized - model for married sanctity - Her life proves holiness exists in all states against Protestant rejection of saints

Jesuit Relations from New France begin (1609-1614) - Detailed ethnographic accounts - Creates 'noble savage' as justification for cultural destruction

St. Francis de Sales writes 'Introduction to the Devout Life' - spirituality for laypeople in the world

Captain John Smith encounters and writes about skunks in Virginia

Tokugawa shogunate restricts tobacco cultivation - attempts to control spread fail, becomes widely cultivated crop