8500 - 560 BC
The first text of civil and commercial law in Babylon (Mesopotamia)
520 BC - 1474
Minting of the first Athenian owls
Coins bearing the image of Julius Caesar
Charlemagne's monetary reforms
Coalitions of the Hanseatic League on the North Sea and the Lombard League in Italy
Assertion of royal power over monetary creation
Monetary manipulations, in particular to finance royal spending
Publication of the Treatise on money by Nicolas Oresme
1474 - 1740
Creation of the first central bank
First paper money issuance in France
1740 - 1945
Boston Tea Party
Publication, in the United Kingdom, of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
French Revolution: economic causes and environment
Creation of the New York Stock Exchange
Two-thirds bankruptcy in France
Creation of the Zollverein, customs union between German States
First Opium War between China and the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, strict link between note-issuance and gold stocks
Banknotes acquire legal tender in France
Publication of the first volume of Karl Marx's Capital
Birth of the German mark
Scandinavian Monetary Union
Berlin Conference on Africa
Russian Revolution
Creation of the International Labour Organization (ILO)
Independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi
Hyperinflation in Germany
Setting up of the Gold Exchange Standard
The first Five-Year Plan in the USSR
Creation of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
Salt March organised by Gandhi in India
The New Deal in the United States
Victory of the Popular Front and the Matignon agreements in France
World War II: a conflict with major economic consequences
The Bretton Woods agreements and the GATT
1945 to the present
Creation of a social security system and nationalizations in France
Decolonization
The Marshall Plan
China becomes communist
Bandung Conference
Creation of the Paris Club
Treaty of Rome establishing the EEC and the common market
The Rueff-Pinay stabilisation plan in France
Liberalisation and economic opening of China
Creation of the European Monetary System (EMS)
France's left-wing economic policy and the subsequent austerity turn
Single European Act
Montreal Protocol: the first major environmental protocol
Breakup of the Eastern bloc
Signing of the Maastricht Treaty
Rio Earth Summit
Creation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
Responses by the G20 countries to the subprime crisis
Failure of the Copenhagen Summit on climate change
2015 - Most recent euro area enlargement
Paris Climate Agreement
