How Three Men Changed Capital Markets Forever, and Why Africa’s Future Depends on Building Institutions Worthy of Trust

By Tinashe T. T. Mpasiri | 03 July 2026

Every institution is born because someone observes a problem that society has either accepted or failed to solve.

The wheel solved mobility.

Banks solved the safe custody and transfer of money.

Insurance solved uncertainty.

Corporations solved the challenge of undertaking promises too great for any one individual.

On 3 July 1884, three men identified another problem, one less visible, but no less significant.

The problem was not that businesses were failing.

The problem was that no one had a reliable way of measuring how businesses, collectively, were performing.

Every day, shares were bought and sold on the streets of New York. Prices rose and fell. Investors celebrated gains and lamented losses. Yet one fundamental question remained unanswered:

Was the market itself becoming stronger, or were these merely isolated movements?

There was no benchmark.

No financial compass.

No common language through which investors could understand the direction of the economy.

On that day, Dow Jones & Company published what became the world’s first stock market index in its daily financial newsletter, Customer’s Afternoon Letter, a publication that would later evolve into the The Wall Street Journal.

The first index tracked eleven companies, nine railroad companies and two transport businesses, and closed at 69.93.

To many readers, it appeared to be a simple average.

History would prove it to be one of the most influential financial innovations ever created.

Because from that moment onward, the world had a way of measuring confidence.

The People Behind the Idea

The name Dow Jones is often mistaken for a single individual.

In reality, it represents three men whose different strengths combined to solve a common problem.

Charles Dow was born in 1851 in Connecticut. He never attended university, yet he became one of the world’s most influential financial journalists. His gift was observation. He believed that financial information should not belong exclusively to wealthy insiders. Ordinary citizens deserved access to reliable information upon which they could make informed decisions.

Edward Jones complemented Dow perfectly. Where Dow interpreted events, Jones understood numbers. His statistical expertise transformed scattered information into meaningful measurement.

The third partner, Charles Bergstresser, is often overlooked. He provided financial backing, operational stability and business leadership that enabled the enterprise to grow.

The story reminds us that enduring institutions are rarely built by one extraordinary individual. They are more often built by people whose different abilities complement one another.

For the African entrepreneur, this is a powerful lesson.

Vision alone is insufficient.

Technical competence alone is insufficient.

Capital alone is insufficient.

Enduring institutions emerge when complementary capabilities unite around a shared promise.

What Promise Did Dow Jones Undertake?

Throughout this Corporate Heritage Series, we have argued that every corporation exists because it undertakes a promise.

What promise did Dow Jones make?

It was not simply to publish newspapers.

Its deeper promise was:

To reduce uncertainty by producing trustworthy financial information.

That promise transformed markets.

When investors trust information, they invest with greater confidence.

When confidence grows, capital becomes easier to mobilise.

When capital flows efficiently, businesses expand.

Employment increases.

Innovation accelerates.

Communities prosper.

This illustrates an important principle:

Corporations do not merely produce goods and services. They produce confidence.

The value of a corporation is therefore measured not only by its profits, but also by the trust society places in its promise.

What Is a Stock Index?

Many people hear statements such as:

“The market gained 300 points today.”

But what exactly does that mean?

A stock index is not a company.

Nor is it a stock.

It is a measurement.

Much like a thermometer measures temperature without creating heat, a stock index measures the collective performance of selected companies without creating wealth itself.

Before 1884, investors could see individual share prices, but they struggled to understand the broader direction of the market.

The stock index solved that problem.

It became the benchmark against which investors measured success, compared performance and assessed economic confidence.

More importantly, it reduced uncertainty.

And reducing uncertainty is one of the greatest contributions any financial institution can make.

Why Do Stock Exchanges Exist?

Understanding the stock index requires first understanding the stock exchange.

Why do corporations issue shares?

Because very few entrepreneurs possess sufficient personal resources to finance ambitious ideas.

Corporations solve this challenge by dividing ownership into shares.

Thousands, or even millions, of people each contribute relatively small amounts of capital.

Collectively, they finance enterprises far larger than any individual could build alone.

This is one of humanity’s greatest financial innovations.

It allows strangers to pool resources in pursuit of a common promise.

The stock exchange provides the marketplace where those ownership interests can be bought and sold.

The stock index then measures how that marketplace is performing.

Seen this way, the index is not merely measuring prices.

It is measuring the confidence of society in the corporations whose shares are traded.

Leadership Is Sometimes About Building Systems

Charles Dow never built a railway.

Edward Jones never operated a locomotive.

Charles Bergstresser never managed a transport company.

Yet together, they transformed capitalism.

Their contribution reminds us that leadership is not always about producing products.

Sometimes leadership consists of building systems through which millions of others can produce, invest and prosper.

Africa needs entrepreneurs.

But it also needs builders of institutions.

Builders of systems.

Builders of trust.

Why Information Is Economic Infrastructure

Roads move goods.

Railways move people.

Electricity powers factories.

Reliable information powers capital.

Without credible financial information:

Investors hesitate.

Banks become cautious.

Entrepreneurs struggle to raise finance.

Economic growth slows.

Information therefore becomes infrastructure every bit as important as roads, ports and electricity.

This insight is especially relevant for Africa.

Our challenge is not merely attracting capital.

It is building institutions capable of producing information that domestic and international investors trust.

Capital follows confidence.

Confidence follows trustworthy information.

Trustworthy information follows credible institutions.

Banking on Africa’s Future

What lessons does this story hold for Africa?

Perhaps the greatest is that prosperity is not created by money alone.

Money follows confidence.

Confidence follows trust.

Trust follows institutions that consistently fulfil their promises.

If Africa wishes to deepen its capital markets, finance industrialisation and empower entrepreneurs, then strengthening institutional credibility must become a national priority.

Strong accounting standards.

Independent auditors.

Transparent corporate governance.

Reliable financial reporting.

Effective regulators.

Independent courts.

These are not administrative luxuries.

They are the invisible infrastructure upon which investment decisions are made.

The entrepreneur seeking finance, the pension fund seeking investment opportunities and the citizen saving for retirement all depend upon institutions worthy of confidence.

Conclusion

On 3 July 1884, Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser did far more than publish eleven stock prices.

They gave the world a new language for measuring confidence.

They demonstrated that markets function best when information is credible, transparent and accessible.

More than 140 years later, that lesson remains as relevant for Africa as it was for New York.

As we continue Banking On Africa’s Future, perhaps the defining question is no longer whether Africa possesses entrepreneurs capable of undertaking great promises.

The deeper question is this:

How best do we build communities that work for all, and institutions that can best serve us?

For in the end, enduring prosperity is not built merely by ambitious individuals.

It is built by institutions that consistently earn the confidence of the people they exist to serve.

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