The young man pointed to the stock exchange behind him: "Let the British see our resolve!
"Since they want to destroy the East India Company, they should not expect any investment from the Netherlands. Join me in selling off shares of the Birmingham Kovak Steel Company!"
As the Security Bureau agent led the charge into the trading hall, hundreds of Amsterdam citizens also surged in.
They didn't look for stockbrokers but withdrew funds from investment firms—most people couldn't come up with the funds for a single trading unit, so some investment companies pooled everyone's small amounts of money to buy stocks.
Of course, after receiving numerous withdrawal requests, investment firms could only liquidate stocks.
The next day's newspapers featured news of the "Birmingham Kovak Steel Company being sold off by angry Amsterdam citizens."
