Economy & Finance in the 17th century

142 sourced entries, 1600 CE to 1699 CE, oldest first. Also see Economy & Finance across every century or everything else in the 17th century.

160028 April — Estates General opens in Brussels (dissolved 9 November)Belgium source
1600June 13 – Barrister Nicholas Fuller is granted the exclusive right in England to manufacture playing cards.source
1600East India Company granted Royal Charter by Elizabeth I of England (ran until disestablishment in 1874)India source
160116 January – New regulations for trading on the Stock Exchange in Antwerp decreed.Belgium source
1601Mark de Cooman and Frank van der Planken establish a tapestry manufactory in Oudenaarde.Belgium source
1601Jørgen Friis was appointed Governor-General of Norway.Norway source
1602March 20 – The United East India Company is established by the United Provinces States-General in Amsterdam, with the stated intention of capturing the spice trade from the Portuguese.source
1602April 20 – The Danish–Icelandic Trade Monopoly is established.source
1602The Danish–Icelandic Trade Monopoly is enacted.Denmark source
1603The earliest of eight companies that will eventually merge to form the Kikkoman Corporation, the producers of soy sauce, is founded in Japan.source
1603Sir Edmund Pelham, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer since 1602, holds the first assizes in Ulster, at Donegal.Ireland source
1604July 7 – King James angrily dismisses the English parliament after failing to get full financial subsidies. He tells the members in his closing speech, "I am not of such a stock as to praise fools."source
1604Economic reforms continue under Maximilien de Béthune, Duke de Sully, focusing on agriculture, trade, and infrastructure.France source
1606April 10 – Charter of 1606: The First Charter of Virginia is adopted, by which King James I of England grants rights to the Virginia Company (comprising the London Company and Plymouth Company) to settle parts of the east coast of North America.source
1607January 13 – The Bank of Genoa fails.source
1608May 8 – A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer.source
1609January 31 – The Bank of Amsterdam is established.source
1609The Dutch East India Company imports tea to Europe.source
1609The municipality of Buenavista in Marinduque, Philippines is founded.source
1609Dutch entrepreneur Isaac Le Maire devizes the concept of selling short shares in order to benefit from a falling Dutch East India Company share price.source
1612The town of Roscommon is incorporated.Ireland source
1614January 27 – The Noordsche Compagnie is founded in the Netherlands at Vlieland as a cartel in the whaling market.source
1615The Somers Isles Company is founded to administer Bermuda.source
1615The Grolsch Brewery is founded in Groenlo, Netherlands.source
1615The Company of the Moluccas is established to trade in the East IndiesFrance source
1616With small profits to show, the Virginia Company decides to distribute land in Virginia to shareholders according to the number of shares owned. Each stockholder can set up a "particular" plantation and pay associated expenses, receiving 100 acres of land for each share and 50 acres for each person transported (the "headrights" system).source
1618Det Norske Jernkompani (The Norwegian Iron Company) was established.Norway source
1621June 3 – The Dutch West India Company is founded.source
1624April 27 – the Norton Baronetcy, of Charlton in the County of Berkshire, is created in the Baronetage of Ireland in favour of English politician Gregory Norton.Ireland source
162425 October – Det Norske Jernkompani is granted a royal privilege, granting the company a near monopoly on iron production on an industrial scale within Norway.Norway source
1624The market hall Børsen opens in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1625The capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, is founded by King Andrianjaka.source
1626May 4 – Peter Minuit becomes director-general of New Netherland, for the Dutch West India Company.source
1626May 24 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan from a Native American tribe (Lenape or Shinnecock) for trade goods, valued at 60 guilders ($1,143 U.S. dollars as of 2020).source
1627Habsburg Spain suffers an economic collapse.source
1628May 13 – In North America, Matthew Cradock is elected by shareholders as the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company.source
1628December 3 – The attempt by the Mataram Sultanate to drive the Dutch East India Company from the western part of the island of Java fails after 103 days.source
1628Foundation of the Lantmäteriet.Sweden source
1629Chongzhen, the Chinese emperor of the Ming dynasty, reiterates the state prohibition against female infanticide, while the empire and the Chinese economy begins to crumble. In the same year, a third of the courier stations are closed down due to lack of government funds to sustain them.source
16315 August – Decree on foreign and billon coinage issued.Belgium source
1636Ballyhornan is founded in County Down.Ireland source
1636Posten AB was established as Kungliga Postverket (The Royal Postal Agency).Sweden source
1637The New Sweden Company is endorsed by the Swedish Government.Sweden source
163823 January – Exports of grain prohibited.Belgium source
1638March 28 – Dutch merchant Willem Kieft is appointed Director of New Netherland by the Dutch East India Company to succeed Wouter van Twiller.source
1638September 6 – Posti Group is founded.Sweden source
1638Sorø is incorporated as a market town.Denmark source
163920 May – Regulations for the management of the goods and income of the city of Brussels publishedBelgium source
16404 May – Oliver St John calls on Parliament to outlaw ship money.England source
1640Børsen (the stock exchange in Copenhagen) was finished. It is considered to be an example of Dutch Renaissance style in Denmark. It’s located in Slotsholmen next to The Parliament of Denmark’s building: The Christiansborg Palace. Børsen is a popular tourist attraction and is known for its distinctive spire, which is shaped like the tails of four dragons twined together.Denmark source
16417 August – ship money declared illegal by Parliament.England source
1645Smålands nation, Uppsala is founded.Sweden source
1646The mining community (bergstad) of Røros is founded.Norway source
1647Anglican professors are dismissed from the University of Oxford.England source
1649July 27 – The Commonwealth of England Parliament passes the "Act for the promoting and propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England" to create the "Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America" for Christian missionary ministries to Native American tribes. The New England Company will continue to operate more than three and a half centuries later.source
1649Swedish Africa Company is founded.Sweden source
1651May 21 – The Sovereign Military Order of Malta purchases the Caribbean islands of Saint Barthélemy, Saint Christopher, Saint Croix and Saint Martin from the France's Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. The Order will sell the islands in 1665 to the French West India Company.source
1651National Board of Trade (Sweden) is foundedSweden source
165220 February – Brussels Privy Council issues a general regulation on coinage, listing the coins to be accepted as legal tender.Belgium source
1653January – The Swiss Peasant War begins after magistrates meeting at Lucerne refuse to hear from a group of peasants who have been financially hurt by the devaluation of the currency issued from Bern.source
165311 August – Brussels Privy Council prohibits the exportation of grain to territory not under the control of friendly or neutral statesBelgium source
1655Paul Kurtz comes to Denmark from Germany where he later becomes Goldsmith to the Danish-Norwegian CourtDenmark source
1656March 3 – Fyodor Baykov, the Russian Empire's first envoy to China, is admitted to the Forbidden City within Beijing, after being sent by Tsar Alexis to negotiate a trade agreement with the Emperor Shunzi.source
1656December 17 – King Frederick III of Denmark and Norway decrees that loan repayments and payments of interest to lenders will be made on two specific days, May 29 and June 11, each one nicknamed the Fandens fødselsdag or "Devil's Birthday",source
1656The only English fifty shilling coin is minted.source
1656The Stockholm Banco, the first bank to issue banknotes, is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.source
1656Konoike Zen'amon (son of Konoike Shinroku) founds a baking and money-changing business in Osaka, Japan.source
1656The Stockholms Banco, the first bank to issue banknotes, is founded.Sweden source
1657England's first chocolate house is opened in London and introduction of tea in England while coffee is introduced to France.source
1657Undated – England's first chocolate house is opened in London, together with the Rainbow Coffee House, the city's second such establishment; while tobacconist and coffee house owner Thomas Garway is the first person to introduce tea in England.England source
1658Undated – Tea first arrives in England, exported from China via Holland.England source
1659March 28 – The Danish Africa Company (Dansk afrikanske kompagni) is chartered to Hendrik Carloff for the purpose of capturing Africa slaves from the area around Denmark's colony on the Danish Gold Coast for use in the West Indies.source
1659March – The Danish Africa Company is founded in Glückstadt.Denmark source
16602 August – Charles II issues a grant for two theatre companies: a King's Company under his own patronage, led by Thomas Killigrew, and a Duke's Company under the patronage of his brother, the Duke of York, led by Sir William Davenant.England source
1660December 18 – The Company of the Royal Adventurers into Africa, planned by Prince James, brother of King Charles II to capture persons along the coast of West Africa for resale as slaves, receives its charter. Prince James, later King James II, had started asking for investors (at 250 pounds sterling per share) starting on October 3, 1660.source
166024 December – Tenures Abolition Act changes several types of feudal land tenure in England.England source
1661The first modern bank notes are issued in Stockholm, Sweden.source
1661The Stockholms Banco becomes the first European bank to print banknotes. The background to this was that Sweden, at this time, had the world's heaviest coins, copper coins that were cumbersome (up to 20 kg –).Sweden source
166216 May – hearth tax is introduced in England, Wales and Scotland.England source
1662May 19 – Royal assent is also given to England's new hearth tax law, with one shilling charged for each stove or fireplace in a building, to be collected on 29 September and on 25 March each year in order to provide the £1,200,000 annual household income for King Charles II. The unpopular tax is abolished in 1689.source
1662December 20 – Nicolas Fouquet is banished from France.source
1663January 10 – The Royal African Company is granted a Royal Charter by Charles II of England.source
166310 January – the Royal African Company is granted a Royal Charter.England source
1664January 7 – Indian entrepreneur Virji Vora, described in the 17th century by the English East India Company as the richest merchant in the world, suffers the loss of a large portion of his wealth when the Maratha troops of Shivaji plunder his residence at Surat and his business warehouses.source
1664April 14 – All grants to the Compagnie des Isles de l'Amerique for development of French-claimed islands in the Caribbean Sea are revoked by King Louis XIV, including the rights to the islands of Martinique and Saint Lucia that had been sold to Marie Bonnard du Parquet prior to her death in 1659.source
1664May 28 – King Louis XIV of France establishes the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales by royal decree to replace the recently cancelled Compagnie des Isles de l'Amerique.source
1664June 9 – Kronenbourg Brewery (Brasseries Kronenbourg) is founded in Strasbourg.source
1664August 27 – The French East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales) is founded.source
1664December 3 – The English warships HMS Nonsuch and HMS Phoenix are wrecked in a storm at Gibraltar.source
1664Kommercekollegiet is established but later dissolved in the late 1680s before being reestablished in 1704.Denmark source
1664Francis Child enters the London goldsmith's business which, as the private banking house of Child & Co., will continue into the 21st century.England source
1664French West India Company establishedFrance source
1664Kronenbourg Brewery established in StrasbourgFrance source
1664Herredag, the highest court in Norway, was abolished.Norway source
1665October 21 – Louis XIV and Jean-Baptiste Colbert found the Manufacture royale des glaces of Saint Gobain, which is the oldest French company of the CAC 40, with 350 years in 2015.source
1668September 17 – Riksens Ständers Bank (The Bank of the Estates of the Realm), the oldest central bank in the world, is established in Stockholm to replace the failed Stockholms Banco.Sweden source
1668One of the world's earliest central banks, the Sveriges Riksbank, is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.source
1668The contents of the national treasury totals 14,930,000 taels Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-HsiChina source
166915 May – The Royal Court Pharmacy in Copenhagen is established by Johann Gottfried Becker.Denmark source
1669Okaya & Co. is founded as Sasaya, a trading company in Nagoya, Japan.source
1670The Danish East India Company is revived.Denmark source
1671March 11 – The Danish West India Company, a charter ship company whose operations include human trafficking of African slaves to the Western Hemisphere by its Danish Africa Company subsidiary, is founded.source
1671Danish West India Company is founded and will settle on St. Thomas the following year, founding the Danish West Indies.Denmark source
1672January 2 – After the government of England is unable to pay the nation's debts, King Charles II decrees the Stop of the Exchequer, the suspension of payments for one year "upon any warrant, securities or orders, whether registered or not registered therein, and payable within that time, excepting only such payments as shall grow due upon orders on the subsidy, according to the Act of Parliament, and orders and securities upon the fee farm rents, both which are to be proceeded upon as if such a stop had never been made." The money saved by not paying debts is redirected toward the expenses of the upcoming war with the Dutch Republic, but the effect is for the halt by banks for extending further credit to the Crown. Before the end of the year, the suspension of payments is extended from December 31 to May 31, and then to January 31, 1674.source
16722 January – cash payments by the Exchequer suspended for a year, due to fears of imminent bankruptcy.England source
1672August – farthing and halfpenny coins, machine pressed at the Royal Mint, are introduced by royal decree, the first official issue of copper coinage. The reverse portrays Britannia, thought to have been modelled by Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond.England source
1672November 28 – After more than five years of administration of the Treasury of England by a five-member commission, Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, one of the commission members, becomes the Lord High Treasurer of England.source
1672Richard Hoare becomes a partner in the London goldsmith's business which, as private banking house C. Hoare & Co., will survive through to the 21st century.source
1673The Mitsui family's trading and banking house is founded in Japan.source
1674January 2 – The French West India Company is dissolved after less than 10 years.source
1674The first Dutch West India Company is dissolved.source
1678November 26 – William Staley, an English banker and a Roman Catholic, becomes the first person to be executed in connection with the "Popish Plot" arrests.source
167826 November – William Staley, a Catholic banker, becomes the first person to be executed in connection with the "Popish Plot".England source
1682The theater company Dän Swänska Theatren is formed.Sweden source
1683August 25 – The Earl of Limerick, Irishman Thomas Dongan, takes office as the new British Colonial Governor of the Province of New York and makes major reforms to restore public order and rescue the province from bankruptcy.source
1684The amount of copper in the alloys if cash coins was reduced from 70% to 60% all while the standard weight was lowered to 1 qián again, while the central government's mints in Beijing started producing cash coins with a weight of 0.7 qián.China source
1684The regiment which becomes the Royal Irish Regiment is formed from independent companies by Arthur Forbes, Viscount Granard (who is elevated to Earl of Granard this year).Ireland source
1686The Royal Norwegian Mint is founded in Kongsberg.Norway source
1687National income - ₹7,004 millionIndia source
1688undated – Lloyd's of London marine insurance market begins to form on the premises of Edward Lloyd in London.England source
168925 May – last collection of hearth tax; it is replaced by a poll tax.England source
169024 August – In India, Sutanuti – which later becomes Kolkata – is founded by Job Charnock of the English East India Company.England source
1690November 17 – Barclays, which will continue to be active into the 21st century as a multinational bank and lending institution, is founded in London by John Freame and Thomas Gould as Freame & Gould. The bank changes its name in 1736 when James Barclay becomes a partner.source
1690Quakers John Freame and Thomas Gould form a partnership as bankers in the City of London, origin of Barclays.England source
1692Lloyd's coffee house in London becomes the main office for marine insurance.England source
1693Financier Richard Hoare relocates Hoare's Bank (founded 1672) from Cheapside to Fleet Street in London.source
16932nd Month: imperial orders are made for eunuchs to be offered official monetary loans, similar to a system in the Eight Banners, since the eunuchs' monthly stipends are rapidly spent and due to the wretched state of their garmentsChina source
169427 July – the Bank of England is established by Royal charter following a proposal by Scottish-born merchant William Paterson; John Houblon becomes its first Governor.England source
1695July 17 – The Bank of Scotland is founded.source
169531 December – the window tax is imposed.England source
1695In Amsterdam, the bank Wed. Jean Deutz & Sn. floats the first sovereign bonds on the local market. The scheme is designed to fund a 1.5 million guilder loan to the Holy Roman Emperor. From this date on, European leaders commonly take advantage of the low interest rates available in the Dutch Republic, and borrow several hundred millions on the Dutch capital market.source
1696April 27 – an act of the Parliament of England for encouraging linen manufacture in Ireland allows plain linen to be exported to England without an import tariff being applied.Ireland source
1696April – window tax introduced.England source
1696May – Great Recoinage of 1696: Shortage of silver coinage results in the guinea being officially revalued at 21 shillings, instead of 30.England source
1696November 12 – Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society, as predecessor to Aviva, is founded in England.source
1696Window tax was introduced in England and Wales and remained in force until 1851.source
1696The Bank of Scotland becomes the first bank in Europe to successfully issue paper currency.source
1696National income - ₹7,877 millionIndia source
1698September 5 – A charter is granted by King William III of England to the new East India Company of England, called "the New Company" or "the English Company" to break the monopoly that has existed in India since 1689 with the existing British East India Company.source
1698Shepherd Neame Brewery founded.source
1698The widow Bourne sets up the business which becomes Berry Brothers and Rudd in London. They will still be operating as wine merchants in the 21st century.England source
1699Thomas Schmertz replaces Andreas Andræ as Governor of Dannemarksnagore.Denmark source