Earliest known shareholding company formed . . . plague insurance offered . . . first foreign exchange contract issued . . . Magna Carta signed . . . paper money invented in China . . .
	Edward 1 issues new coins. Mafia created . . . Europe's largest bank collapses after loan to English king . . . charging interest legalised . . . dried fish used as money . . . hyperinflation in China, Ming note plunges . . .
	Cortes conquers Mexico. Fortified wine pioneered by Benedictine monks . . . tobacco used as currency in Virginia . . . tulip mania in Holland . . .first known cheque issued . . . Bank of England founded . . .
	Lloyd's of London founded. Bank of Scotland opens . . . Dom Perignon creates new sparkling wine . . . Barings bank established . . . Royal Giro set up by Frederick the Great . . . New York Stock Exchange created . . .
	Pitt introduces income tax. Rothchilds expand into Britain . . . US doubles in size . . . Jacquard perfects loom . . . US bans international trading . . . Thomas Cook starts travel business . . . California gold rush . . .
	Nokia founded. Marx publishes Das Kapital . . . Germany becomes united . . . first Barings crisis . . . FT rounded . . . Henry Ford builds experimental car . . . First mega-merger of the 20th century . . .
	The Great Crash Keynes argues against war reparations . . . hyperinflation in Germany . . . US prohibition . . . cattle still used as currency . . . IMF begins . . . first charge card . . . Japanese economic miracle . . .
	European unity US abandons gold standard . . . oil prices quadruple . . . mass-produced computers . . . Thatcherism in Britain . . . Black Monday . . . collapse of Communism . . . single currency in Europe . . .
Sources: A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day by Glyn Davies. ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996. The Bank of England - A Comparative Chronology of Money http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/amser/chrono.html Europe A History, by Norman Davies London: Pimlico, 1997 Chronicle of the World London: Longman, 1989.