3874 entries. Last updated May 25, 2013.

Commerce / Trade Timeline Outline

  • Eras
  • Themes

2,500,000 BCE – 8,000 BCE

Shells of Nassarius gibbosulus, estimated to be around 82,000 years old, found in Morocco. (View Larger)
Evidence of Early Trade Routes?
(Circa 80,000 BCE)

8,000 BCE – 1,000 BCE

Cuneiform Writing in Mesopotomia Begins at Uruk in Association with the…
(Circa 3,200 BCE – 2,900 BCE)

The Origins of Glassmaking
(Circa 2,500 BCE – 1,250 BCE)

<p>Photo of wharf at low tide, Wadi al-Jarf</p>
The World's Oldest Harbor
(Circa 2,500 BCE)

The Uluburun Shipwreck
(1,375 BCE)

300 BCE – 30 CE

The Salamis Tablet. (View Larger)
The Earliest Surviving Counting Board
(Circa 300 BCE)

600 – 700

Canon 22 of the Council of Nicea II (British Museum, MS Barocci 26, fol. 140b), where the top is written in minuscule and the bottom in unical.(View Larger)
Arab Conquest of Egypt Resulted in Smaller Exports of Papyrus-- A Probable…
(641)

A jiaozi from the Song Dynasty. (View Larger)
Introduction of Paper Money in China
(Circa 650 – 960)

700 – 800

Traversing the Mediterranean in Twenty Days
(700)

800 – 900

Origins of the Term Algebra
(Circa 830)

900 – 1000

The First Printing Encountered by European Travelers
(994)

1100 – 1200

Origins of the Paris Book Trade
(Circa 1170)

1200 – 1300

Folio 124r of the Codex magliabechiano, a manuscript of Liber Abaci preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze. (View Larger)
Fibonacci Introduces Arabic Numerals to the European Public and Describes…
(1202)

First Recorded Issue of Paper Money in the Mongol Empire
(1224 – 1227)

Possibly the First Joint-Stock Company
(Circa 1250)

A map illustrating both the first and second Polo expeditions. (View Larger)
The Travels of Niccolo and Maffeo Polo
(1266)

Tabriz, Iran, as seen through Google Earth. (View Larger)
A Clear Record of Early Block Printing in Tabriz
(1294)

Folio 54r from a facsimile of 'Le divisament dou monde,' preserved at the University of Graz, in Germany. (View Larger)
The Lure and Romance of Travel to the East
(1298 – 1299)

A woodblock from Gregor Reisch's Margarita Philosophoca, 1508, depicting a table abacus. (View Larger)
The European Table Abacus
(Circa 1299)

1300 – 1400

The Oldest Known English Public Advertisement
(Circa 1340)

The Relative Costs of the Components of Medieval Manuscripts
(1374 – 1375)

Costs for a Missal Produced in 1382
(1382)

1400 – 1450

Printing Playing Cards
(1418)

An image of Moses from the Book of Leviticus: folio 141v of a manuscript bible produced in the workshop of the scribe Diebold Lauber. (View Larger)
Serial Workshop Production of Medieval Manuscripts
(Circa 1420 – 1470)

Card Printing in Venice Has Outside Competition
(1441)

Henry VI. (View Larger)
The First English Patent for an Invention
(1449)

1500 – 1550

Pencil 'lead' has never actually contained the metal; its name arrose from a visual similarity between the two substances. (View Larger)
Origins of the Pencil
(Circa 1500 – 1565)

The First Book Published in England Devoted Exclusively to Mathematics
(October 14, 1522)

1650 – 1700

The World's Oldest Auction House
(1674)

1700 – 1750

Early Government Incentive for Scientific Research
(November 12, 1713 – 1714)

Lombe's Silk Throwing Mill: The First Factory
(1718 – 1721)

1750 – 1800

The Earliest Large-Scale Data-Processing Organization
(1770)

The Age of "Laissez-Faire"
(1776)

The First Official National Industrial Exposition
(1798)

1800 – 1850

The Industrial Revolution Advances
(Circa 1800)

The First Publically Subscribed Passenger Railroad
(September 27, 1825)

The First Common Carrier Railroad in the United States
(July 4, 1828 – May 24, 1830)

1875 – 1900

Foundation of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
(May 26, 1896)

The First Automobile Assembly Line
(August 21, 1897 – 1901)

1900 – 1910

Henry Ford Sponsors Improvements in the Automotive Assembly Line
(1908 – December 1, 1913)

1920 – 1930

The First Suburban Shopping Center Designed for Shoppers Arriving by Automobile
(1923)

Foundation of Public Relations
(1923)

1930 – 1940

The First Publications on Statistical Quality Control in Manufacturing
(April 1930 – 1939)

1950 – 1960

The First Credit Card
(February 1950)

First Stored-Program Computer to Run Business Programs on a Routine Basis
(November 17, 1951)

1960 – 1970

NY Stock Exchanges Completes Automation of Trading
(1966)

The First ATM
(Circa 1969 – 1970)

1970 – 1980

The First Intentional Spam
(May 1, 1977)

The Minitel
(1978 – June 30, 2012)

1990 – 2000

eBay is Founded
(September 3, 1995)

2000 – 2005

"Weapons of Financial Mass Destruction"?
(December 14 – December 21, 2000)

2011 – 2013

Walmart Buys Kosmix.com, Forming @WalmartLabs
(April 18, 2011)

McKinsey Report on the Impact of the Internet on Growth, Jobs, and Prosperity
(May 2011)

Technological Unemployment: Are Robots Replacing Workers?
(January 23, 2012 – January 13, 2013)

Online Advertising is Expected to Surpass Print Advertising
(October 2012)

Book Mountain + Library Quarter in Spijkenisse, The Netherlands
(October 4, 2012)

Google Has 67% of the U.S. Search Market and Collects 75% of U.S. Search Ad Dollars
(November 4, 2012)

2013 – Present

"Information Technology Dividends Outpace All Others"
(January 11, 2013)