There are many other places around the world and in different periods of time that shaped and formed modern-day investing. In the 1300s, the city-state of Venice was a major center for the clearing or exchanging of obligations held by one owner, and exchanging them with another owner. Venetians began to do what today’s modern brokers do: bringing buyers and sellers together in order to transact a financial obligation. These same Venetian traders even engaged in international finance by buying and selling obligations owned by various European governments.