People in the financial sector will undoubtedly recognise the attached image. The trading floor at Beursplein 5, with the distinctive figure of Mercury in the foreground. As television reports on the exchange regularly open with this “glimpse” of the Amsterdam Exchange, the image has long been familiar to audiences across the Netherlands. Today marks exactly 100 years since Mercury took up his permanent place on the balustrade above the main trading hall at Beursplein 5. The bronze statue was a gift from traders to the VvdE, the Amsterdam stock exchange organisation at the time, in 1926, to mark its 50th anniversary.

The 100^th anniversary is a fitting occasion to take a closer look at this so-called “Flying Mercury”. After all, how well is the statue really known? Many people know that Mercury is the Roman god of commerce. The fact that the Greeks called him Hermes is perhaps less well known. Just as the bull symbolises market trading in Anglo-Saxon countries, Mercury has symbolised exhange trading in the Netherlands for centuries. As early as the 17^th century, a statue of Mercury adorned the façade of Amsterdam’s first exchange building: the Hendrick de Keyser Exchange. Mercury also appeared on the first exchange buildings in Rotterdam. These were still relatively static statues which, because of their weight, seemed almost to be boring their way into the ground.

The 100-year-old Flying Mercury on Beursplein 5 is a replica of a model created around 1563 by the sculptor Giambologna (1529–1608), who was originally from Flanders. Unlike earlier sculptures, his design was highly dynamic. The statue is perfectly balanced, yet, with its raised right leg and spiralling upward movement, it seems as though he might take flight at any moment. Hence the apt nickname “Flying Mercury”.

Giambologna, whose birth name was Jean de Boulogne, was the most influential sculptor of the second half of the 16^th century. Like Michelangelo, he briefly served the influential Florentine Medici family. He created the original sculpture for the family’s garden, where it formed part of a fountain. Today, the original sculpture can still be admired at the Bargello Museum in Florence.

As a sculptor, Giambologna quickly established himself as a sculptor of exceptional talent. The story goes that his “Flying Mercury”, with its exemplary balance, muscular anatomy and bronze execution, served as a model for aspiring sculptors right up until the 19^th century. As a result, few other motifs have been reproduced so frequently over the centuries or circulated so widely through the art trade. Particularly after reusable moulds were developed in the 19th century, the number of reproductions increased dramatically.

The famous “Flying Mercury” installed at Beursplein 5 in 1926 is one of many reproductions. But the 100-year-old statue is not the first to have appeared in Amsterdam’s exchange circles. The first appeared as early as 1845, when King William II donated a similar statue to the capital to mark the opening of Amsterdam’s second merchants’ exchange: the Beurs van Zocher. In that exchange building, which stood on the site now occupied by the Bijenkorf, the statue was placed between the columns at the entrance facing the Dam. After the Beurs van Zocher was demolished in 1903, this first Flying Mercury of the capital moved, along with the trading activities, to the Beurs van Berlage. There, the statue can still be admired today in the former commodities trading hall.

After commodities trading moved away in the 1980s, the “Flying Mercury” at the Beurs van Berlage now primarily watches over cultural activities. His counterpart at Beursplein 5, who watched over shares and options in the last century, now presides over the trading activities of resident firm AFS. Meanwhile, a second statue, which arrived in 1998 from Rokin 65 along with the options exchange, presides over the opening bell ceremony. Driven by the wind from the mouth of Aeolus, the god of the wind, both “Flying Mercury” statues, with their balanced and dynamic postures, have continued to point Amsterdam’s market in the right direction for 100 years: towards balance in motion.