The Chronicles of Capitalism

Capitalism - Chronology of Events

1200s

1233

• Coal mining begins - Monks in Newcastle-upon-Tyne excavated bell mines - narrow entrances to larger underground caverns to harvest coal - used to fuel ironworks

1252

• Formation of Hanseatic League - German towns, including Lübeck and Hamburg negotiate trade agreements with Flanders 
  Hanseatic cities expand trade around the Baltic Sea in goods such as timber, wax, amber, resins, furs, and grain

1284

• Venetian gold ducat coin introduced.

1300s

1324

• Cannons used at the Siege of Metz in France

1340

• Flemish flüssoven (primitive form of blast furnace), using water-powered air blasts, used to raise temperatures high enough to melt iron ore

1400s

1407

• Founding of Casa di San Giorgio, world's first public bank, in Genoa
  Charter allowed investors to buy shares
  Bank provided some protection to investors, ran credit checks on borrowers, and could collect taxes
  Offered public bank accounts

1415

• Prince Henry (the Navigator), third son of the Portuguese king John I, appointed governor of province of the Algarve
  Constructs school for navigation on the Sagres promontory intended to encourage Portuguese sea exploration
  1419 - Expedition under João Gonçalves Zarco, sponsored by Prince Henry, rediscovers island of Madeira
  1427 - Expedition reaches Azores
  1432 - Expedition under Gil Eannes rounds Cape Bojador, on the coast of Western Sahara, disproving belief that only a churning sea lay to the south
  1460 - Final expedition sponsored by Henry, under Pedro de Sintra, reaches Sierra Leon, 1,500 miles down the coast of Africa

1453

• April 6 - Turkish forces of the Ottoman Empire, under Sultan Mehmet II, begin artillery bombardment of the city of Constantinople
• Turkish artillery contingent contains 70 guns, largest weighing 19 tons, 25 feet (7.5 meters) long, capable of lobbing a 650 pound (295 kg) ball of granite up to a mile.
• May 28 - Constantinople falls to sustained assault by Ottoman forces

1455

• German inventor Johannes Gutenberg publishes first copies of the "Gutenberg Bible"
  Gutenberg had converted a wine press into a printing press, incorporating the heavy screw as a pressure device to press a sheet of type against a sheet of paper.
  He created a punch mold to cut letters en masse and used a new metal alloy for the type
• Press can produce about 240 pages per hour
• Gutenberg's financial backer later sues, and is awarded the rights to the invention, reaping nearly all the financial benefits

1487

• August - Bartolomeu Dias sails from Lisbon on an exploratory voyage of Africa

1488

• February 3 - Bartolomeu Dias, after sailing south for 13 days, away from the African coast, sights land after returning north, then realizes that the expedition had rounded the southern tip of Africa
• Dias sails east along the coast, reaching the Great Fish River, before his crew forced him to turn back
• On the return voyage, Dias names the southern cape "Stormy Cape," which is later changed by the Portuguese king, Manoel I, to the "Cape of Good Hope."
• December - Dias returns to Lisbon

1492

• August 3 - Christopher Columbus, backed by Queen Isabella, of Spain sets sail
• Expedition force consists of three ships - the Niña, Pinta, and the Santa Maria, with a combined crew of about 90

1493

• March 15 - Columbus arrives back in the Spanish port of Palos

1497

• July 8 - Vasco da Gama sails from Lisbon with four ships - the flagship São Gabriel, the São Rafael, the Berrio, and a storeship - hoping to reach India

1498

• April - da Gama sails from African port city of Malindi
• May 20 - After sailing across the Indian Ocean for 23 days, da Gama reaches the Indian city of Calicut
• August 29 - da Gama departs India

1499

• July 10 - da Gama's ship Berrio reaches Lisbon
• August/September - da Gama, in flagship São Gabriel, reaches Lisbon

1500s

1521

• August 21 - Aztec capital Tenochtitlan falls to Spanish force under Hernán Cortés

1556

• Publication of "Commentario resolutorio de usuras," an economic treatise authored by a Dominican priest, Martín de Azpilcueta, also known as Navarrus, a scholar at the University of Salamanca in Spain
• Treatise advocated a "scarcity theory of value," the idea that the value, or price, of something, whether it was currency, or goods, increased when it was in short supply.
• Navarrus looked at the Spanish economy, and in particular, how the influx of New World silver and gold had led to an increase in prices and wages.

1557

• China grants trading concession to Portuguese in eastern coast city of Macau
• Portugal would not appoint a governor until 1680 but would retain control until December 1999, when it was returned to China

1587

• Venetian government sets up first public bank, Banco della Piazza.

1588

• Defeat of the Spanish Armada

1594

• March 1594 - Formation of Compagnie van Verre (Long-Distance Company) at Amsterdam.
  Consortium of nine elite merchants.
  Starting capital of 290,000 guilders.
  Fleet of four ships with 249 men and 100 cannon.

1595

• Amsterdam emerges as main rival of Hamburg for European spice distribution.
• April 1595 - Long-Distance Company fleet sails from Texel.

1596

• Publication of 'Itineraio' of Jan Huigen van Linschoten helps spark Dutch interest in Far East.
  Journal of travels to Goa and Far East between 1584 and 1592.

1597

• Long-Distance Company fleet of 1595 returns with only 3 of 4 ships; 89 surviving crew of original 249.

1598

• Spanish King Philip II dies.
• Philip III (1598-1621) becomes king.
• Spain reimposes embargoes in Spain and Portugal on Dutch shipping (1598 - 1609).
• Dutch ships begin sailing in Caribbean for high-grade salt, in response to Portuguese embargo.
• Long-Distance Company of 1594 expands to 18 directors with starting capital of 768,466 guilders.
• Spring 1598 - Long-Distance Company fleet of eight vessels sails.

1599

• Four vessels of Dutch fleet of 1598 return.
• Profit of 400 percent.
• East India traffic expands to eight Dutch companies.

1600s

1600

• December 31, 1600 - Queen Elizabeth signs charter for 'The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies.'

1601

• February 1601 - Four East India Company ships, Red Dragon, Hector, Susan, and Ascension, sail from Woolwich under command of James Lancaster.
• Fall 1601 - Fourteen Dutch fleets, totaling 65 ships sail to East Indies.
• Dutch East India trade saturates market causing drop in prices and fall in profits.
• December 1601 - Conference at Hague on government regulation of spice trade.

1602

• March 1602 - Charter issued to United East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) (VOC)

1603

• June 1603 - East India Company ships Ascension and Susan return with cargo of pepper and spices.
• September 11, 1603 - East India Company ships Red Dragon and Hector return to London.
• Surplus of pepper causes London prices to fall.

1605

• February 1605 - Dutch East India Company forces bombard Portuguese fortress at Ambon (Amboina).
• Dutch take Indonesian 'Spice Islands' of Ternate and Tidore from Portuguese.

1608

• Dutch New Exchange founded.

1610

• First shipment of tea, from Macau, China, arrives in Amsterdam on a Dutch East India Company ship

1621

• June 1621 - States General charter Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) (WIC).

1623

• Statute of Monopolies legislation - England's Parliament outlaws monopolies and allows injured parties to sue for damages
  Inventions were exempted and patents were allowed

1631

• Great building of Amsterdam Exchange finished

1633

• "Hollandische Mercurius" uses word "capitalist."

1642

• Coke first made from coal in Derbyshire, England.

1654

• "Hollandische Mercurius" uses word "capitalist" a second time.

1664

• English resume harassment of Dutch shipping.
  200 Dutch ships siezed.
• French general tariff raises price on Dutch goods imported into France.
• French East and West India Companies formed.

1666

• September 2 - 5, 1666 - Great Fire of London.

1698

• London stock exchange opens

1700s

1709

• Abraham Darby, at Coalbrookdale, in Shropshire, England, first uses coke to smelt iron, instead of charcoal

1720

• South Sea Bubble - Share prices of South Sea Company collapse.

1722

• December 1722 - Imperial East India Company in Austrian Netherlands formed - 'Ostend Company.'

1723

• Adam Smith born in Kircaldy, Scotland

1724

• Paris Bourse set up in the Hotel de Nevers, former offices of the Compaignie des Indes.

1740

• Adam Smith begins studies at Balliol College, Oxford

• Crucible process - method of refining steel by heating in enclosed earthernware cupolas (crucibles) which prevent contact with the air - developed in Sheffield, England by Benjamin Huntsman, a clockmaker
  English steelmakers would monopolize production of crucible steel - high-quality steel, important for machined parts - known in Germany as English steel, or cast steel (Gusstahl), until Alfred Krupp discovered secret to process in 1830

1751

• Adam Smith named professor of logic at Glasgow University

1758

• "Tableau économique" "Economic Picture" published
  French physican and economist François Quesnay coins term "laissez-faire," to refer to a policy of minimum governmental regulation in the economic affairs of people and society

1759

• Adam Smith publishes first work "The Theory of Moral Sentiments"

1769

• James Watt patents design for a rotary steam engine

1772

• Exchange opened in New York

1775

• English inventor Sir Richard Arkwright receives patent for a mechanical spinning frame, a carding machine capable of mass producing yarn from raw cotton, known as a water frame, after adapted to water power.

1776

• Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" published.
  Passages referring to "self-interest" and the "invisible hand" of the market will become cornerstone expressions of capitalist/free market philosophy.

1779

• Completion of first iron bridge in the world over the River Severn in Shropshire, England

1783

• First water-driven spinning machine installed at factory in Ratingen, near Düsseldorf

1785

• August 23 - first steam engine, based on James Watt's English engine, used in Germany

1789

• Bückling, a Prussian civil servant - builds first steam engine in the Ruhr, for a state-owned mine
  German steam engines, in early industrial development, were primarily used for pumping water out of mine shafts
• Samuel Slater, a mechanic at Jedediah Strutt's factory in Belper, Derbyshire, leaves for America disguised as a farmer, having memorized the design details of Richard Arkwright's spinning frame

1790

• Samuel Slater, with the help of a blacksmith, Oziel Wilkinson, builds a replica of Richard Arkwright's machine at a mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

1792

• English inventor Edmund Cartwright obtains patent for steam-powered loom.

1796

• First coke blast furnace installed at Gleiwitz by Prussian state
• Prussian state also sets up blast furnaces and engineering workshops in Königshütte

1799

• Gold discovered in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.

1800s

1807

• August 1 - Robert Fulton's steamboat, the North River Boat, leaves Christopher Street dock in New York City and arrives in Albany two days later.

• October 9 - Edict by Prussian King abolishing serfdom and freeing Prussian peasants
  Edict also granted Prussian aristocracy (Junkers) ownership rights over landholdings (right to sell)

1810

• November - Prussian Trade Tax Edict
  Allowed individuals to practice a trade, without belonging to a guild, so long as they paid the trade tax
  Guilds, prior to this time, while providing protections for their members, had been able to forbid the formation of companies, limit the number of apprentices, prevent the use of new and improved machinery, and fix prices

1811

• September - Prussian Law on the Policing of the Trades
  Manufacturers were no longer required to be a member of a guild, or to employ guild members, but could recruit laborers on the free or open market
  Law did not forbid guilds, but did not require laborers to join guilds in order to work
  While laborers could more easily enter the labor market, they also lost the protections provided by guild membership
• Trade law changes had some immediate impact, although most would take decades to impact the German economy

1813

• Francis Cabot Lowell forms Boston Manufacturing Company to construct a water-powered loom for the manufacture of cotton textiles
  Lowell had recently returned from Britain, where he had spent two years visiting the textile mills in Manchester, allowing him enough access to memorize the design of Edmund Cartwright's power loom

1814

• George Stephenson invents steam locomotive to pull coal from a mineshaft to a loading dock for a mine near Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northern England.
• Francis Cabot Lowell, with help from his mechanic, Paul Moody, succeeds in creating an operational water-powered loom in Waltham, Massachusetts.

1817

• February - Formation of what would become the New York Stock Exchange
  Twenty-eight brokers create organization called the Board of Brokers, and rent an office on Wall Street
  Name soon changed to New York Stock and Exchange Board
• July 4 - Construction of Erie Canal begins at Rome, New York.

1818

• May - Prussian customs law
• Legislators favoring free-trade succeed in limiting duties to 10 per cent for most goods
• Raw materials were duty-free, although luxury goods, such as wine, were subject to a duty of up to 30 per cent
• Law eliminated Prussian internal customs and restrictions, essentially creating a free market within Prussia
• Law temporarily benefited British manufacturers, which were accused of dumping, and represented a victory for the Junkers and Rhenish bourgeoisie, who wanted to keep prices of manufactured goods low

1819

• April 14 - Formation of the General German Association for Trade and Industry (Allgemeiner deutscher Handels- und Gewerbeverein) at the Frankfurt-am-Main fair
  Association attracts the attention of 800 industrialists, who join within a month

1821

• Santa Fe Trail beginnings - Trader William Becknell leaves Franklin, Missouri, with a mule train, for Santa Fe after Mexico opens borders to trade

1822

• Cologne businessmen form company with Dutch investors to own and operate steamers on the Rhine

1824

• Rhineland-Prussian Steamship Company (Rheinisch-Preussische Dampfschiffahrtsgellschaft), first large joint-stock company in the transport industry, founded by the Cologne chamber of commerce
  by 1830 twelve steamships would be in regular use on the Rhine

1825

• Fall - Erie Canal completed - New York Governor Clinton makes first trip
• George Stephenson, in England, demonstrates a locomotive capable of pulling thirty-six wagons of coal and flour along a nine-mile level track in two hours.

1826

• French inventor Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce creates first permanent photograph

1827

• Water turbine, capable of generating six horsepower, invented by French engineer Benoît Fourneyron

1828

• Friedrich Harkort of Wetter establishes Germany's first joint-stock railway company
• Neckare Salt Union - first German cartel formed

1830

• January - Alfred Krupp succeeds in developing weldable crucible steel
• Friedrich Harkort's joint stock company completes first German railway
  five-mile narrow-guage line in the Ruhr between Himmelfürst colliery at Überruhr and Kupferdreh
  coal is carried on coaltrucks drawn by horses
• Passenger train line between Liverpool and Manchester begins service
• Small locomotive "Tom Thumb," designed by Peter Cooper, loses publicity race to horse-drawn wagon but is adopted by Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

1831

• Cyrus McCormick invents mechanical grain-reaping machine.

1834

• January 1 - German Customs Union (Zollverein) reaches agreement with thirty-six Teutonic states
  agreement abolishes all intra-union tariffs
  yearly congress would be held every summer in one of capitals
  decisions had to be unanimous
  Customs Parliament (Zollparlament), with legislative powers, would not be part of Zollverein until 1866
• March - Alfred Krupp markets crucible steel to manufacturers in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, Leipzig, and Berlin

1835

• December - First German railway line - Ludwig Railway - opens in Bavaria
  operates as a passenger line, served by a locomotive - Der Adler - built in England by Robert Stephenson and driven by an English crew
  first freight is two barrels of beer carried by passengers in May 1836

1837

• John Deere, in Grand Detour, Illinois, develops steel plow from a broken circular saw blade.
  In contrast to cast-iron plows, used in New England, which accumulated dirt and had to be continually cleaned, Deere's plow was self-scouring and resisted the accumulation of dirt clods on its surface.

1838

• Berlin-Potsdam railroad passenger line (16 miles long), built by a private company, opens
• Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel railroad line opens
• November - Prussian Railway Law
  Regulated construction and operation of railways
  Granted concessions to private entrepreneurs for construction and operation for a period of thirty years, but allowed for nationalization once that period wasover
• Iron-ore production - 266,000 tons

1839

• April Dresden-Leipzig railway line opens
  Train's first locomotive, the Comet, manufactured in England
  Englishman serves as first driver

1841

• August Borsig builds first locomotive at his Berlin factory, based on an American model
• Puddling - process of purifying pig iron by heating and stirring in an oxidizing atmosphere - employed at Dietrich Piepenstock's Hermann ironworks near Hörde
• Significant deposits of copper discovered in northern Michigan during geological survey of state.

1843

• Prussian Railway Fund established
  Funds were to be used to guarantee interest on new railway shares and loans

1844

• Zolverein (German Customs Union) introduces a new duty on bar iron
  Impact was to increase cost (duty could be as high as 68 percent) of importing rails from England, which supplied 90 percent of German market
  provided incentive to German firms to increase domestic production of iron and steel
  encouraged iron producers to begin using coke, rather than charcoal, in iron production
• Charles Goodyear patents process for vulcanizing rubber
• May 24 - Professor Samuel F. B. Morse demonstrates telegraph to dignitaries in the chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington
  Sends message "What hath God Wrought" to associate Alfred Vail, forty miles away, in Baltimore, who sends message back
  Morse uses telegraph days later to report events of Democratic national convention, held in Baltimore.
• July 4 - Silesian weavers' revolt
  Mob attacks headquarters of Zwanziger Brothers, a textile firm in Peterswaldau, smashing furnishings, presses, and everthing found in complex:
  eleven are killed when infantry companies open fire
  before order is restored, destruction totals some 80,000 thalers
• Treaty of Wangxia - China opens five ports to the United States

1845

• American manufacturer Richard Hoe develops steam-driven rotary printing press, capable of printing 8,000 sheets an hour

1847

• Werner Siemens produces pointer telegraph
  telegraph utilized gutta-percha as insulator
• Berlin firm of Siemens and Halske Telegraph Construction Company founded by Siemens and Georg Halske
  firm would develop Germany's first telegraph network, first electric railway, and trolley system

1847 - 1849

• Period of depression across Europe hits both industry and agricultural sectors
  Revolutions of 1848 cause industrial output to decline and unemployment to increase
  Value of stock investments decline while gold and silver hoarding increases
• Investors in Europe look to United States market for opportunities
  German investments in the U.S. total 150 million dollars in the 1850s
• Railway carriages used on German railroads are all made by German manufacturers

1848

• Reorganization of failed private Schaaffhausen Bank in Cologne as joint-stock company
  Rather than simply making loans, policy was to invest in stock of newly emerging industrial and commercial undertakings, such as mining, railways, insurance companies, and manufacturers
• January 24 - Gold discovered at Sutter's Mill on the American River in California.

1849

• California Gold Rush - Thousands travel to California, hoping to become rich prospecting for gold.

1850

• German operational railway network totals 3,660 miles, nearly twice the mileage of France
• Iron-ore production - 545,000 tons

1850s - 1870s

• German Coal production shifts from Upper Silesia to Ruhr region
• Nearly 100 new mines open in the Ruhr region between 1850 and 1857
  output increased from 1.6 million tons to 3.6 million tons
  output in 1865 increases to 9.2 million tons
  by 1870 output is 11.8 million tons
• Production becomes more efficient -
  in 1855 per miner output was 700 tons; in 1864 output per miner had increased to 986 tons
• Availability of wider variety of coals - steam-coal, gas-coal, and coking-coal - in deeper mines, support diversification of Ruhr area
• Iron foundries established in Essen-Bochum region because of availability of coke
• Expansion of rail network contributes to mining development in region
• Improvements in river transport aid in development
  coal transported on the Rhine River is moved in 500 ton barges, towed by steam-tugs
• Fall in coal prices in 1857 leads to closing of less profitable mines and consolidation of production into larger complexes
• Eleven largest mines in Rhur in 1862 produce over 100,000 tons of coal a year each

1851

• Joint-Ownership Law - Prussian state gave up control of mining exploitation, finance, sales, the hiring of workers, and the fixing of wages
  safety regulations, employment of juveniles, and the qualifications of mining engineers remained in the hands of the Prussian state
  tax on gross output of mines reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent
• Disconto Gesellschaft (bank) of Stuttgart founded
• Werner Siemens announces development of dynamo-electrical machine
• Beginning of economic boom in agriculture and industry which will last until 1857
• Crystal Palace Exhibition in London
  1,720 German craftsmen and manufacturers participate
  Alfred Krupp puts 4,300 pound block of steel on display, as well as a cast-steel 6-pounder field gun
  Siemens & Halske displays an electric telegraph
• Edward Hargraves discovers gold in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia

1852

• Pig-iron production in Germany - 167,000 tons
• November 20 - Formation of Crédit mobilier bank of Paris, founded by Emile and Isaac Pereire
  Established to provide credit to public utilities and manufacturing enterprises
  savings of small investors would be used to invest in shares of newly emerging enterprises
• Crédit mobilier would ultimately crash in 1867

1854

• Last year in which foreign locomotives were imported into Germany
• Gemany exports locomotives and railway carriages

1855

• Benjamin Silliman, Jr., a chemistry professor at Yale, distills a batch of crude oil to produce kerosene, an illuminant superior to whale oil
• Distilling yields other by-products - lubricating oil, gasoline, and parafin

1856

• Sir Henry Bessemer, British engineer, announces discovery that passing a blast of air through molten cast-iron could remove impurities and separate purified metal from slag
  Bessemer converter increased speed of steel production
• Berlin Commercial Bank (Berliner Handelsgesellschaft) founded
  investment bank which sold stock to private investors and used the proceeds to grant long-term loans to new companies

1857

• 29 German banks authorized to issue notes
  in 1851 only 9 German banks had such authority
• Capital investment in railways totaled 362.5 million thalers
  in 1848, the investment had been 158.5 million thalers
• Coal output in the Zollverein reaches 14.8 million tons
  output in 1851 had been 5.8 million tons
  Increased German coal output contributes to fall in prices and end to coal boom, leading to unemployment
• pig-iron production in the Zollverien reaches 535,000 tons
  output in 1851 had been 225,000 tons
• August - Beginnings of depression in United States and Europe
  Bumper grain harvest in the United States causes wheat prices to fall
  Due to drop in prices, farmers cannot make interest payments on loans and borrow more money
  Ohio Life Insurance Trust, in the United States fails, leading to a panic
• September - Banks in U.S. fail
• October - run on New York banks, with eighteen closing their doors
  four Glasgow firms trading in the American market fail, leading to other failures in England
• November - Panic in mercantile and financial firms in Hamburg, Germany
  150 Hamburg firms fail
• December 10 - 65 out of 135 bankrupt Hamburg firms placed in receivership, to be run by administrators
• Intervention by Austrian government, which arranges a 750,000 pound silver shipment, together with guarantees by the Hamburg Union Bank and the Bank of North Germany, restore confidence by the end of 1857

1858

• August Borsig factory production reaches milestone of 1,000 locomotives having been built since first locomotive in 1841
• Beginning of recession which would last into 1859
• Ruhr Mineowners Association (association of coal-owners) formed

1859

• May - John H. Gregory discovers gold on the north fork of Clear Creek, west of Denver, in Colorado
• June - Comstock Lode discovered - Prospectors Peter O'Riley and Patrick McLaughlin discover quartz veins of nearly pure silver and gold in Six Mile Canyon of Davidson Mountain in the Carson River Valley of Nevada, in the eastern Sierras
  Mines on Davidson Mountain will generate more than $15,000,000 in revenue in the first four years of production
• August - "Colonel" Edwin L. Drake, with a thirty-foot derrick, drills seventy feet into the ground and strikes oil, near Titusville, Pennsylvania
• Calumet and Hecla copper lode discovered in Michigan

1860

• Prussian steel industry in the process of switching to puddling process
  ten times more steel produced by puddling process in 1860 than in 1850
• production of cast steel 22 times greater than in 1850
• Anglo-French (Cobden-Chevalier) treaty of commerce
  France reduces tariffs on British manufactured goods
• August - Gold discovered at Canal Gulch by E.D. Pierce, on the Clearwater River, in the northern part of what would become the state of Idaho

1861

• October - Telegraph line connecting Omaha, Nebraska, and telegraph lines east, with the western lines from Carson City, Nevada to California, completed at Salt Lake City, Utah.
  California Chief Justice Stephen Field sends first message to Abraham Lincoln.

1862

• U.S. Congress enacts Pacific Railroad Act
  Creates Union Pacific Railroad company, first corporation chartered by federal government since the Second Bank of the United States chartered in 1816
• March 8 - Battle of the ironclads - Confederate Merrimack (Virginia) and the Union Monitor confront each other in a 3-hour duel at Hampton Roads, Virginia
• Autumn - Gold discovered in the Boise River Basin of Idaho

1864

• Congress enacts Pacific Railway Act of 1864
  Construction begins on Transcontinental Railroad

1869

• May 10 - Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
  Driving of the Golden Spike
  Ceremony held at Promontory Point, Utah
  Railroad lines of Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad Company joined
• Summer - Construction begins on the Brooklyn Bridge
• August - Suez Canal completed across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt, connecting Mediterranean and Red Seas

1870

• Germany exporting 4 million tons of coal a year
• June - North German Reichstag passes new Company Law
  eliminated need for official approval before establishing a joint-stock company
  nearly 1,000 companies set up in Prussia between 1870 and 1873
  over 120 new credit banks established between 1869 and 1872
• John D. Rockefeller forms Standard Oil of Ohio

1873

• Canadian Pacific railroad company formed to build rail line across Canada
• May - German Currency Law
  establishes uniform metric currency - the mark - based on gold standard
  replaces thaler, gulden and other coins
• May 8 - Vienna stock exchange experiences sudden drop in stock prices
  three hundred bankruptcies announced over the next few days
  Austrian government intervenes by proclaiming a moratorium on financial transactions until May 28th
  National Bank of Austria stops redeeming its notes in gold and silver
• September - France pays Germany 5,000 million franc indemnity (a condition of the Treaty of Frankfurt)
• October - German Quistrop Bank fails
  other German banks suspend payments
• Industrial output falls as failing companies stop ordering goods and materials
• German economy will not fully recover until 1876
• Andrew Carnegie builds steel plant near Pittsburgh

1875

• Gilchrist Thomas steelmaking method invented
  limestone and dolomite lining of Bessemer converters found to absorb phosphorus from pig iron, which could be passed off as slag
• Reichsbank established as a national central bank
  Bank of Prussia was absorbed by the Reichsbank

1876

• Otto and Langen produces four-stroke engine, developed by Nikolaus August Otto
• March 10 - First recognizable long-distance voice transmission over wire
  Alexander Graham Bell speaks words "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you," after spilling battery acid on himself, into a device, which are heard by his assistant in a receiver down the hall

1877

• Thomas Edison invents phonograph

1879

• Gilchrist Thomas steelmaking method introduced in Germany
  allowed German steelmakers to use high-phosphorus ore deposits of Lorraine
• December - Thomas Alva Edison demonstrates successful development of
  lightbulb by lighting laboratory ih Menlo Park, New Jersey

1881

• Emil von Rathenau secures German rights to Thomas Edison's electric lamps, after visit to Paris electrical exhibition
• Siemens and Halske's first electric streetcar goes into service in Berlin-Lichterfelde

1882

• Karl Benz builds factory in Mannheim, Germany to manufacture gas engines

1883

• Emil von Rathenau sets up German Edison Company (Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft) (DEG)- Germany's first electrical joint stock company
• International Railmakers Association formed - members included German, British, and Belgian firms
• May - Brooklyn Bridge opens to traffic

1885

• Karl Benz develops three-wheeled 'horseless carriage' powered by gasoline
• August - Gottlieb Daimler develops first lightweight, high-speed engine to run on gasoline
  mounts engine on two-wheeled vehicle to create first motorcycle
• Silver and gold dike discovered in northern Idaho - Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine over time will generate $250,000,000 in revenues
• November 7 - Canadian transcontinental railway completed
  Eastern and western sections of Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.) connect when last spike driven at Eagle Pass

1886

• January 29 - Karl Benz receives patent for Patent Motor Car - top speed under 10 mph
• Gold (world's largest goldfield) discovered on Witwatersrand ridge, near Johannesburg, South Africa
• Ohio chemist Charles Martin Hall discovers how to use electrolysis to isolate pure drops of aluminum metal from cryolite and aluminum oxide

1887

• Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) founded
  German Edison Company becomes AEG

1888

• Charles Martin Hall forms Pittsburg Reduction Company to produce aluminum

1890

• Synthetic nitrogen begins replacing imported saltpetre imports for agricultural fertilizers
  by-product of Gilchrist Thomas steelmaking process was 'Thomas powder' a phosphorus-rich waste
  German chemists had developed catalytic synthesis method, which allowed for mass production of nitrates from Thomas powder
• Gottlieb Daimler sets up Daimler Motor Company
• Mountain Iron Mine drilled -
  Seven Merritt brothers, of Duluth, Minnesota, begin production of first successful iron mine in the 110-mile long Mesabi Range of northern Minnesota
  Mesabi Range will produce 60 percent of the U.S. iron between 1900 and 1980
• July 2 - American Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act, outlawing contracts or business combinations in restraint of trade

1891

• Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) lays first electric cable to transmit power over a long distance (175 kilometers) between River Neckar and Frankfurt-am-Main

1893

• Karl Benz introduces first four-wheel model automobile

1894

• German Edison Company (DEG) becomes German General Electric Company (Allgemeine Elektrizitätgesellschaft (AEG) under Emil Rathenau

1895

• August - First hydroelectric plant in the world, owned by the Niagara Falls Power Company, using the waterfalls of Niagara Falls, becomes operational

1896

• Spring - Henry Ford drives first gas-powered automobile out of his garage workshop in Detroit
  Engine generated some 4 horsepower and auto could go 25 miles per hour
• First long-distance transmission of electrical power - Hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls, begins supplying power to the city of Buffalo, New York

1897

• Yukon Gold Rush - Gold discoveries on a tributary of the Yukon River in August 1896, reach the outside world in the summer of 1897, motivating thousands to head to the area in hopes of becoming rich.

1900s

1900

• German steel production - 7,000,000 tons, greater than that of Great Britain by 1,500,000 tons
• Karl Benz' German factory sells more than 600 vehicles annually, making it the world's largest car producer

1901

• Daimler Motor Company introduces Mercedes automobile
• Andrew Carnegie sells Carnegie Steel to banker J.P. Morgan for half a billion dollars
  Morgan merges Carnegie Steel with other steel companies to form U.S. Steel, capitalized at $1.4 billion
• December 12 - First long-distance wireless transmission
  Italian inventor Gugielmo Marconi, at a receiving station at Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland, hears transmission of Morse code signals sent from a transmitter in Cornwall, England, 2,000 miles away

1903

• Henry Ford opens Ford Motor Company to produce automobiles.
• December 17 - Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, make four successful flights of biplane "Flyer," powered by a 12-horsepower engine, at beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

1906

• Christmas Eve - Canadian-born inventor Reginald A. Fessenden broadcasts first voice transmission from his laboratory at Brant Rock, Massachusetts
  Fessenden's reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and a recording of Handel's "Largo," is heard by wireless operators on ships out in the Atlantic

1907

• Pittsburg Reduction Company renamed Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa)

1908

• General Motors Company formed by consolidation of several smaller companies

1913

• Federal Reserve Act of 1913 - establishes Federal Reserve System, a central banking system, in the U.S. designed to provide oversight of member banks, as well as an emergency source of funding during periods of economic uncertainty

1924

• International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) formed.

1929

• October - Great Crash - Share prices on New York Stock Exchange exhibit sharp decline
  After April 1930 stock prices begin decline which will continue through mid-1932, when prices bottom out.
• October 23 - Share prices on New York Stock Exchange fall sharply during last hour of trading.
• October 24 - Black Thursday - Share prices continue fall of previous day.
  Almost 13 million shares change hands.
• October 28-29 - Stock prices begin falling a second time.

1930

• Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising tariffs on imported goods, signed by President Herbert Hoover
  leads to retaliatory tariffs in affected countries and a reduction in world trade
• December 11 - Bank of the United States, in New York City, collapses.

1933

• May 12 - Federal Emergency Relief Act, providing grants totaling $500 million to states to fund unemployment relief, signed by President Roosevelt
• June 16 - Banking Act of 1933 (Glass-Steagall Act) signed by President Roosevelt
  strengthed power of Federal Reserve over U.S. banking system
  gave Federal Reserve power to control speculation on Wall Street by setting margin requirements
  established Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guaranteeing bank deposits

1936

• Economist John Maynard Keynes publishes "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money" arguing that governments should engage in deficit spending in times of economic crisis to stimulate economic activity

1944

• July - Bretton Woods Conference - Representatives of the Allied powers meet at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to try to regulate the world financial system expected to emerge from World War II
  Bretton Woods establishes International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), later to become the World Bank

1945 - 1973

• Long Boom - World economies experience period of uninterrupted high-level growth rates, with low unemployment

1945

• April - Founding conference of the United Nations (UN) convenes in San Franciso

1946

• ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), first successful electronic computer, completed at the University of Pennsylvania by Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.

1947

• October - General Agreement onf Tariffs and Trade (GATT) signed by 23 countries
• Western Electric, manufacturing arm of AT&T, develops transistor

1948

• April - Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) established by the 16 nations receiving post-War recovery assistance to co-ordinate the aid program

1949

• April - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual self-defense pact, formed by 12 Western countries.

1952

• European Coal and Steel Community established between France, Germany, Italy, and Benelux countries to rationalize and co-ordinate heavy industry production among its members

1957

• Treaty of Rome establishes the European Economic Community (EEC)

1959

• Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor develop integrated circuit, a series of interconnected transistors laid down on a silicon surface by machine

1968

• Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) formed
• ARPANET, predecessor of the Internet, established, with four computers connected by phone lines, three in California, and one at the University of Utah

1970

• Alexander Gerschenkron in "Europe in the Russian Mirror" uses "capitalism" as a generic term to describe modern economies - "Capitalism, that is the modern industrial system."

1971

• August 15 - President Nixon renounces Bretton Woods Agreement, which tied the value of the U.S. dollar to the price of gold
  the dollar would be allowed to float in value and would no longer be based on the gold standard
  wages, rents, and prices were frozen for ninety days and strict wage and price controls would go into effect after that
• Intel produces first commercial microprocessor, an integrated circuit laid down on a silicon chip

1973

• Arab oil embargo - Saudi Arabia and other oil-exporting countries refuse to export oil to countries supporting Israel, following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, leading to "oil shock"
  Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raises world prices of crude oil by a factor of four

1991

• December 9 - Maastricht Treaty - Members of the European Economic Community, meeting in the Dutch city of Maastricht agree to a Treaty on European Union - EEC to be re-named the European Union (EU)

1992

• November - North America Free Trade Area (NAFTA) - Leaders of US, Canada, and Mexico agree to allow free movement of goods and services across their borders
• December 31 - Maastricht Treaty creating the European Union becomes effective
  effectively ends economic barriers between the member states

1994

• January - NAFTA becomes active

2007

• US economy experiences slowdown, marked by falling housing prices

2008

• October - Great Recession begins - US Stock Market crash leads to unemployment and several years of slower economic growth