Options are contracts that give their holder the right, but do not oblige their holder, to buy (or to sell) an asset at a set price on, or up to, a given date. They are old instruments. Puts (options to sell) and calls (options to buy) on the stock of the Dutch East India Company were being bought and sold in Amsterdam when Joseph de la Vega discussed its stock market in 1688 (de la Vega 1957), and subsequently options were traded widely in Paris, London, New York, and other financial centers.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 522