Economics Timeline

The Banque Générale Privée founded by John Law in 1716 became the Banque Royale which obtained that the notes would be guaranteed by the King - i.e. by people's tax.

This Act placed a tax on common products imported into the American Colonies, such as lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea (though they did not place a tax on silk).

The Bank of North America was chartered on December 31, 1781 by the Congress of the Confederation and opened on January 7, 1782, at the prodding of Finance Minister Robert Morris, and was rechartered in 1784. This was thus the first modern United States bank. It was succeeded by the First Bank of the United States.

The Coinage Act of 1792 introduces an exchange ratio of 15 to 1 for Gold and Silver [see Bimetallism]

Nathan Rotschild knew that Wellington won the battle of Waterloo 24h before everybody. He profited from that information on the Stock Market.

September 24, speculators Jim Fisk and Jay Gould attempted to corner the nation’s gold market. The two-week frenzy on the gold market had virtually halted the country's foreign trade, which relied on gold as the medium of exchange. The economic fallout caused stock prices to fall 20%, export agricultural products (mainly grain crops) to plummet over 50%, several brokerages to go bankrupt, and severe disruption in the national economy for months.

Recovery was not realized until 1878.