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[Forwarded from Eh.Res. Message dated: Thu, 29 May 1997 18:10:54  
-0400. Please respond to the original sender:  
[log in to unmask]] 
 
Dear Economic Historians: 
 
I need your help for a project I am working on for Life magazine. We are 
attempting to chronicle the most important 100 events or developments of 
the last thousand years, and I have been assigned the task of determining 
what landmarks we should include in the area of commerce. We are looking at 
this in the broadest terms, attempting not to be completely eurocentric, 
with an emphasis on developments that have affected the greatest number of 
people or in the most profound ways. I would welcome your comments, 
especially about any items that we should add, any that could be dropped, 
which are most important, and of course, which are just plain wrong. 
   It might also help you to know that the final list will not be organized 
into categories, so it doesn't matter if something is not ABOUT commerce, 
per se, as long as it is important.  The other categories we're looking at 
include technology, transportation, world events, rights, life-style, 
medicine and health, art and culture, communication, and religion. So if 
you don't see it here, it might have come up somewhere else. But let me 
know anyway. 
   The tentative list (in chronological order) includes: 
 
1509 Europeans bring African blacks to New World as slaves 
 
1516 Sugar exported to Europe from New World: sugar plantations play major 
role in expansion of slave trade and the movement of millions of African 
blacks to the Americas. [Could these two be combined?] 
 
1531 First stock exchange opens in Antwerp 
 
1544 Silver discovered at Postosi, Peru; helps increase trade with 
Asia 
 
1602 Dutch East India Company founded--first modern public company 
 
1612 Tobacco first produced for commercial sale in North America [looking 
for moment when it became a product to be consumed for pleasure and sold 
for profit] 
 
1650 Tea traded with Europe [tea consumption as a measure of leisure] 
 
1776 Adam Smith writes "The Wealth of Nations," the handbook of modern 
capitalism 
 
1859 First oil well drilled at Titusville, Pa. 
 
1896 Nobel prizes established; Industrialists get a conscience [looking for 
something on philanthropy] 
 
1929 Stock market crash; worldwide Depression 
 
We would be particularly interested in any important items that occurred 
before 1500 and/or are not primarily European or American. 
 
You can send your comments to me at [log in to unmask] Thanks in 
advance for your help. 
 
Ann Harrington, Reporter 
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