Economy & Finance in the 16th century

32 sourced entries, 1500 CE to 1598 CE, oldest first. Also see Economy & Finance across every century or everything else in the 16th century.

• 1500India's economy had a 24.5% share of world income, the second largest in the world after China, which had a 25% share.Indiasource
• 1501Pedro Álvares Cabral left India on 16 January and returned to Portugal with pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, mace, and cloves. The profits made from this trip were huge.Indiasource
• 1504July 20 – Pope Julius II issues an order reforming the official coinage of the Papal States, raising the silver content of the carlino coin to four grams. In that the Pope was formerly Giuliano della Rovere, the new coin is called the giulio in his honor and features the coat of arms of the della Rovere family.source
• 1506In Ming dynasty China, the costs of the courier system are met by a tax in silver on land, instead of corvée labor service.source
• 1510August 10 – The Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy is founded when Henrich Krummedige is appointed chief captain of all those who are at sea.source
• 1533August 13 – King François of France dispatches Colonel Pierre de Piton to Morocco with a letter addressed to the ruler, Sultan Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad, in order to establish a trade agreement.source
• 1545September – the English Royal Mint issues debased coinage for Ireland.Irelandsource
• 1546February 7 – John Bathe becomes Principal Solicitor for Ireland.Irelandsource
• 1550June 27 – the English Council resolves to establish a mint in Ireland.Irelandsource
• 1551March 27 – French mechanical engineer Aubin Olivier becomes the director of the new Royal Mint, the Moulin des Etuves on the Île de la Cité in Paris after having learned the technique of producing uniform milled coinage during a sabbatical in Germany.source
• 1552June 7 – The king orders the Irish currency to be reduced to parity with that of England.Irelandsource
• 1554The name of the beer brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company is based on a recipe from this date, called "1554."source
• 1555February 26 – The Muscovy Company is chartered in England to trade with the Tsardom of Russia and Richard Chancellor negotiates with the Tsar.source
• 1555The Adal Sultanate in the Horn of Africa collapses.source
• 1556The Welser banking families of Augsburg lose colonial control of Venezuela.source
• 1557Spain becomes bankrupt, throwing the German banking houses into chaos.source
• 1560October 4 – Queen Elizabeth of England notifies the official treasurers and Lords Mayor throughout the kingdom that the existing coins will be replaced and that those in circulation are to be devalued, to be stricken with a special mark to indicate lesser worth. Treasurers are all instructed to send the coins withdrawn from circulation to be sent to the Royal Mint to be melted down for the new coins.source
• 1560October 29 – Queen Elizabeth directs the minting of the first machine produced coins in the Kingdom to completely replace hammered coinage, produced manually.source
• 1560November 8 – Eloy Mestrelle is given authority to commence the production of the new English coinage on machines he has brought over from France for the purpose of mass production.source
• 1561Elizabeth I of England introduces a higher standard of silver coinage for Ireland.Irelandsource
• 1566May 30 – The Augsburg Imperial Coin Edict issues from the Holy Roman Empire, authorizing a new coin, the thaler. The new unit of money, the Reichsthaler, follows standards providing that the weight should be based on one-ninth of a Cologne mark of silver (the "9 Thaler standard") with each minted coin to weigh 29.23 grams and to contain 25.96 grams of silver. The word thaler, an abbreviation for the "Joachimsthaler" minted from the silver mines at Joachimsthal (modern-day Jáchymov in the Czech Republic), is anglicized to dollar, the name of currencies in many nations.source
• 1570July 22 – Thomson Snell & Passmore is founded in England, the oldest law firm in operation.source
• 1571January 23 – The Royal Exchange opens in London, England.source
• 1575September 1 –As a result of the Eighty Years' War, the government of the Kingdom of Spain is in bankruptcy and stops paying its troops, beginning in March.source
• 1577March 17 – The Cathay Company is formed, to send Martin Frobisher back to the New World for more gold.source
• 1581The Ming Dynasty Chancellor of China, Chief Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, imposes the Single Whip Reform, by which taxes are assessed on properties recorded in the land census, and paid in silver, as the accepted medium of exchange.source
• 1582The independence in taxation and granting of privileges given to Duke Charles is reduced by John III through the so-called Statute of Stockholm.Swedensource
• 1584Disqualification of Ministers Act 1584Scotlandsource
• 1585The Frankfurt Stock Exchange was founded.source
• 1588Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork and father of Robert Boyle, arrives in Ireland as an entrepreneur.Irelandsource
• 1594In Amsterdam, the Compagnie van Verre is created, with the goal of breaking the Portuguese monopoly on spice trade.source
• 159817 January – financier Thomas Foulis is bankrupted.Scotlandsource