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The future is unknowable, but that hasn’t stopped investors from trying to buy it. While the business world prepares for SpaceX’s potentially blockbuster initial public offering, here’s a look at other moments over the past few centuries when investors tried to buy the next era.

Trade becomes tradeable

One of the earliest publicly traded companies, the Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602 to protect Dutch Republic trade in the Indian Ocean and aid the Dutch war of independence from Spain. The company prospered through most of the 17th century as an instrument of the Dutch commercial empire before its dissolution in 1799.

Speculation outruns reality

Not every bet on the future was underpinned by a durable business. In the 17th century the Dutch “Tulip Mania” pushed prices for rare bulbs to absurd heights before they collapsed. A century later came another reckoning: The South Sea Company became the center of a speculative mania that collapsed in 1720 and ruined many British investors.

Personal computers become big business

By the late 20th century, the future looked technological. Apple Computer, Inc.’s 1980 public offering, 4.6 million shares at $22 each, was the biggest IPO since Ford Motor Company went public in 1956.

The dawn of the Internet age

Netscape’s 1995 stock market debut hinted at the colossal financial weight of the Internet age, with shares more than doubling on the first day. Amazon.com went public in 1997 but didn’t record its first profit until 2003.

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