8000 BCE
Clay tokens for accounting
Neolithic Near Eastern communities track goods with clay tokens — the root of writing and accounting. Source — Wikipedia: )
Chronological Storyline (10 Milestones)
600 BCE
Coinage in Lydia
Lydia mints standardised metal coins; China and India develop their own coinage in parallel. Source — Wikipedia:
1024 CE
Chinese paper money (jiaozi)
Song-dynasty China issues the world’s first government paper currency. Source — Wikipedia: )
1340 CE
Double-entry bookkeeping
Italian merchants formalise double-entry accounting, later codified by Luca Pacioli (1494). Source — Wikipedia:
1397 CE
The Medici Bank
The Medici Bank pioneers branch banking, credit and exchange across Renaissance Europe. Source — Wikipedia:
1668 CE
First central bank
Sweden’s Riksbank, then the Bank of England (1694), establish central banking. Source — Wikipedia:
1816 CE
The gold standard
Britain formally adopts the gold standard, anchoring currencies to gold for over a century. Source — Wikipedia:
1950 CE
The credit card
The Diners Club card launches general-purpose consumer credit and cashless payment. Source — Wikipedia:
1971 CE
Fiat currency era
The end of dollar–gold convertibility (Nixon shock) makes modern fiat money the global norm. Source — Wikipedia:
2009 CE
Bitcoin & the blockchain
Bitcoin introduces a cryptographic, decentralised ledger, founding blockchain finance. Source — Wikipedia: