Just my Opinion: 30 Most Important Events in Financial and Economic History

1. The invention of money by the Ancients and its replacement of the barter system
2. The Industrial Revolution and the Collapse of the Domestic Cottage Economy since the 18th century
3. Age of exploration and the Opening up of the New worlds
4. The Birth of Mercantilism in 17th century Europe
5. Invention of the discipline of Accountancy in Renaissance Italy
6. The Increase in Women in the Western World’s Workforce throughout the 20th century
7. Introduction of Income Tax by the British Government during the Napoleonic War
8. Collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929
9. Adam Smith documents the working of the market society
10. Derivation of the Law of Supply and Demand
11. Formation of the First Stock Exchange in Amsterdam c. 17th century
12. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels write the Communist Manifesto
13. Setting up of the First National Pension Plan – 19th Century Germany
14. Introduction of the First Credit Card (Diner’s Club)
15. Formation of the First Guilds and Trade Unions
16. Bretton Woods, the formation of the IMF and the beginning of GATT
17. Formation of the European Common Market
18. Movement on and off the Gold Standard by the various nations
19. The continuous complication of the Income Tax Acts in most Western Countries since WWII.
20. John Meynard Keynes makes the case for Government Intervention and Fiscal Policy
21. Invention of the Macroeconomic discipline of National Incoming Accounting
22. Milton Friedman makes the case for Monetary policy
23. The New Economy Revolution of the 1990s, Rise of the NASDAQ
24. Further Impoverishment of the Third World since the 1970s by the accumulation of debt
25. Development of the Theory of Rational Expectations
26. Signing of NAFTA and the Mercursor Nation Trade Agreements and the Globalization drive.
27. Period of Post Cold War Privatization
28. Alan Greenspan’s success in defeating inflation in the Western world
29. Period of Post World War II Industrial Nationalization
30. Era of Merger and Acquistion’s - 1980s and 1990s