Economy & Finance in the 19th century

223 sourced entries, 1800 CE to 1899 CE, oldest first. Also see Economy & Finance across every century or everything else in the 19th century.

• 1800January 1 – The Dutch East India Company dissolves.source
• 1806January 1 – The French Republican Calendar is abolished.source
• 1807January 20 – The Sierra Leone Company, faced with bankruptcy because of the imminent abolition of the slave trade in British colonies, petitions the British government for purchase and transfer of its property to the Crown; Parliament approves the transfer on July 29, and it takes effect on January 1, 1808.source
• 1807March 25 – The United Kingdom Slave Trade Act becomes law abolishing the slave trade in most of the British Empire with effect from 1 May (slavery itself is abolished in British colonies in 1833).source
• 1808April 6 – John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company.source
• 1808October 12 – Banco do Brasil, a major financial group in South America, founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.source
• 1809March 1 – The Embargo Act of 1807 is repealed in the United States; the Non-Intercourse Act replaces it.source
• 1810June 23 – John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company.source
• 1812April 4 – U.S. President James Madison enacts a 90-day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.source
• 1812June 16 – New York State charters the City Bank of New York (later Citibank).source
• 1813January 5 – The Danish state bankruptcy of 1813 occurs.source
• 1814February 21 – The Great Stock Exchange Fraud is exposed in London.source
• 1814March 25 – De Nederlandsche Bank is established.source
• 1815February 3 – The first commercial cheese factory is founded in Switzerland.source
• 1816April 28 – The French Caisse des dépôts et consignations, a public investment body, is created by Louis XVIII.source
• 1816Mutuelle de L'assurance contre L'incendie ("L'Anciente Mutuelle"), predecessor of Axa, the global insurance and financial services company, is founded in Rouen, France.source
• 1818July 11 – The Bank of the United States reverses its policy of expanding credit, and sends notices to its borrowers nationwide demanding immediate repayment of balances due; the defaults during the next six months will trigger the Panic of 1819.source
• 1819January 2 – The Panic of 1819, the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States, begins.source
• 1820Anchor coinage is first struck in silver in London denominated in fractions of the Mauritian dollar for use in British colonies.source
• 1824March 9 – The Netherlands Trading Society (Netherlandsche Handel-Maatschappij), predecessor of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO, is founded.source
• 1825March 17 – The Norfolk & Dedham Group is founded as The Norfolk Mutual Fire Insurance Company in the United States.source
• 1825August 18 – Scottish adventurer Gregor MacGregor issues a £300,000 loan with 2.5% interest, through the London bank of Thomas Jenkins & Company, for the fictitious Central American republic of Poyais. His actions led to the Panic of 1825, the first modern stock market crash, in England.source
• 1826November 3 – The Paris Stock Exchange opens at the Palais de la Bourse.source
• 1828The Cornwall Bank, earliest constituent of ANZ bank in Australasia, is formed in Launceston, Van Diemens Land.source
• 1830Sogo, a Japanese department store brand founded in Osaka, Japan, as predecessor part of Seven & I Retail Group.source
• 1831January 10 – Japanese department store, Takashimaya in Kyoto established.source
• 1831November 7 – Slave trading is forbidden in Brazil.source
• 1831December 26 – Global financial services business Assicurazioni Generali is founded in Trieste (at this time in the Austrian Empire) as Imperial Regia Privilegiata Compagnia di Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche.source
• 1832July 1 – Global conglomerate Jardine Matheson is founded in Canton (modern day Guangzhou) in Qing dynasty China by Scottish merchants.source
• 1832November 24 – Nullification Crisis: The U.S. state of South Carolina passes the Ordinance of Nullification, challenging the power of the U.S. federal government, by declaring that it will not enforce national tariffs signed into law in 1828 and 1832.source
• 1832December 10 – U.S. President Andrew Jackson responds to the Nullification Crisis by threatening to send the U.S. Army and Navy into South Carolina if it does not comply.source
• 1832The City of Buffalo in New York is incorporated.source
• 1832Global watch brand Longines is founded in Switzerland.source
• 1833American healthcare brand McKesson Corporation established as a partnership.source
• 1834February 13 – Robert Owen organizes the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union in the United Kingdom.source
• 1834March 6 – York, Upper Canada, is incorporated as Toronto.source
• 1834March 28 – Andrew Jackson is censured by the United States Congress (expunged in 1837).source
• 1834The British East India Company monopoly on China trade ends. It appoints a Tea Committee to assess the potential of Assam tea.source
• 1835January 8 – The United States public debt contracts to zero, for the only time in history.source
• 1835July – The Bertelsmann company is founded by Carl Bertelsmann as a religious printer and publisher in Prussia.source
• 1835December 16– The Great Fire of New York begins and lasts until the next day, destroying 530 buildings, including the New York Stock Exchange.source
• 1835The British Geological Survey is founded, as the world's first national geological survey.source
• 1836The New Board brokerage group is founded in New York City.source
• 1836Eugène Schneider and his brother Adolphe Schneider purchase a bankrupt ironworks near the town of Le Creusot, in the Burgundy region of France, and found the steelworks and engineering company Schneider Frères & Cie.source
• 1837April 12 – The conglomerate of Procter & Gamble has its origins, when British-born businessmen William Procter and James Gamble begin selling their first manufactured goods (soap and candles) in Cincinnati, Ohio.source
• 1837October 31 – In what will become the world's leading consumer goods brand, Procter & Gamble is founded in Ohio in the United States.source
• 1839Galveston, Texas, is incorporated.source
• 1839Valley Falls Company, a predecessor of Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate and holdings company in the United States, is founded in Rhode Island.source
• 1842May 11 – The Income Tax Act establishes the first peacetime income tax in the United Kingdom; 7 pence in the pound, for incomes over 150 pounds.source
• 1844July 19 – The Bank Charter Act 1844 is approved, which restricts the powers of British banks, limiting note-issuing powers outside the central Bank of England.source
• 1845December 30 – Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway are incorporated in Ireland.source
• 1846November 17 – Carl Zeiss, a major worldwide optoelectronics and digital camera brand, is founded in Thuringia, Germany.source
• 1847June – E. H. Booth & Co. Ltd, which becomes the northern England supermarket chain Booths, is founded when tea dealer Edwin Henry Booth, 19, opens a shop called "The China House" in Blackpool.source
• 1847Cartier, a luxury brand in France, is founded.source
• 1848March 7 – Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris, predecessor of European bank BNP Paribas, is founded by decree of the French Provisional Government.source
• 1848April 3 – The Chicago Board of Trade is founded by 82 Chicago merchants and business leaders.source
• 1848Watch brand Omega is founded by Louis Brandt in Switzerland.source
• 1849January 27 – The Fayetteville and Western Plank Road Company is incorporated, to build a plank road from Fayetteville to Bethania, North Carolina.source
• 1849February 1 – The abolition of the Corn Laws by the United Kingdom's Importation Act 1846 comes fully into effect.source
• 1849March 3 – The United States Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of two additional denominations of gold coins, the gold dollar and the double eagle.source
• 1850June 3 – Kansas City, Missouri, is incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri, as the Town of Kansas (traditional date of its founding).source
• 1851June 2 – Castle & Cooke, the predecessor of Dole Food Company, is founded in Hawaii.source
• 1852March 18 – Henry Wells and William Fargo create Wells Fargo & Company.source
• 1853March – The clothing company Levi Strauss & Co. is founded in San Francisco (US).source
• 1853September 20 – Otis Elevator, as predecessor of Otis Worldwide, is founded in the United States.source
• 1853December 14 – Compagnie Générale des Eaux, predecessor of Vivendi and Veolia, a global media conglomerate, is founded in Paris, France.source
• 1853The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China is incorporated in London by Scotsman James Wilson, under a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.source
• 18531853–1873 – More than 130,000 Chinese laborers come to Cuba.source
• 1854March 1 – The Plan de Ayutla calls for liberal reforms and the ouster of President Antonio López de Santa Anna of Mexico.source
• 1854March – The British East India Company annexes Jhansi State in India under the doctrine of lapse.source
• 1854The French fashion label Louis Vuitton is founded.source
• 1855July – Bank of Toronto incorporated in Canada (in 1955 it will merge with The Dominion Bank to become Toronto-Dominion Bank).source
• 1856June 20 – General Mills is founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, as the Minneapolis Milling Company.source
• 1856Global financial services business Credit Suisse is founded as La Schweizerische Kreditanstalt.source
• 1857May 15 – Spanish financial group, Banco Santander founded in Cantabria, Spain.source
• 1857May 28 – Banco de Bilbao, as predecessor of BBVA is founded in Spain.source
• 1857October 13 – Panic of 1857: New York banks close, and do not reopen until December 12.source
• 1858November 17 – Modified Julian Day zero starts on this date.source
• 1858The haute couture firm of Worth and Bobergh is established in Paris.source
• 1859Nillmij, a predecessor of Aegon, Dutch-based worldwide insurance company, is founded in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia).source
• 1859The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women is founded.source
• 1860TAG Heuer watchmaker founded in Bern Canton, Switzerland.source
• 1861May 29 – The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce is established.source
• 1861In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government issues the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US$800; rescinded in 1872).source
• 1861October 25 – The Toronto Stock Exchange is established in Canada.source
• 1862April 22 – Global financial group UBS is founded in Switzerland as the Bank in Winterthur.source
• 1862Iwai Fumisuke Shoten (岩井文助商店), predecessor of Japanese conglomerate Sojitz, is founded in Osaka.source
• 1863January 2 – Master Lucius Tar Paint Company (Teerfarbenfabrik Meister Lucius), predecessor of Hoechst as a worldwide chemical manufacturing brand, is founded in a suburb of Frankfurt am Main, Germany.source
• 1863February 26 – Abraham Lincoln signs the National Banking Act into law.source
• 1863August 1 – The pharmaceutical brand Bayer is founded by Friedrich Bayer in Germany.source
• 1863December 15 – Gerard Adriaan Heineken, 22, buys the brewery 'De Hooiberg' ("The Haystack") in Amsterdam.source
• 1864February 15 – Heineken Brewery is founded in the Netherlands.source
• 1864April 22 – The United States Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864, which makes privately issued Civil War tokens illegal. An additional law is passed on June 8 to include all private coinage.source
• 1864May 4 – Société Générale, a major financial group in France, is founded.source
• 1864Yasudaya Currency Exchange Bank, as predecessor of Mizuho Financial Group, is founded in Edo (modern-day Tokyo), Japan.source
• 1864Merchants Bank of Halifax, as predecessor of Royal Bank of Canada, founded in Nova Scotia.source
• 1865January 4 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street, in New York City.source
• 1865May 12 – Electric equipment and mobile brand Nokia founded in Tampere, Finland.source
• 1865The National Temperance Society and Publishing House is founded by James Black in the U.S.source
• 1866May 10 – London bank Overend, Gurney and Company collapses, precipitating Panic of 1866.source
• 1866Magirus, as predecessor of a major worldwide commercial vehicles manufacturing brand, Iveco, is founded in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.source
• 1866Foundation of the predecessors of Nestlé S.A., the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé.source
• 1867March 23 – William III of the Netherlands accepts an offer of 5,000,000 guilders from Napoleon III for the sale of Luxembourg, leading to the Luxembourg Crisis.source
• 1867Margarine Unie, at the time named Antoon Jurgens United, a predecessor of the Unilever, worldwide toiletries, beauty care and beverage brand, is founded in Netherlands.source
• 1867Delhaize, as predecessor for Ahold Delhaize, a major retail group in Europe, is founded in Belgium.source
• 1868March 24 – The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed, in New York City.source
• 1868June 2 – The first Trades Union Congress is held in Manchester, England.source
• 1868The Dortmunder Actien Brauerei is founded in Germany.source
• 1868Tata Group is founded by Jamsetji Tata as a trading company in India.source
• 1869September 24 – Black Friday: The James Fisk–Jay Gould Scandal causes a financial panic in the United States.source
• 1869Campbell Soup Company is founded in New Jersey, United States.source
• 1869The investment bank Goldman Sachs is founded in New York.source
• 1869The Co-operative Central Board (later Co-operatives UK) is founded in Manchester, England.source
• 1869Heinz, as predecessor of Kraft Heinz, a worldwide food processing and cheese brand, founded in Pennsylvania, United States.source
• 1870January 10 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.source
• 1870February 10 – Anaheim, California, is incorporated.source
• 1870February 26 – The German Commerzbank is founded in Hamburg.source
• 1870March 10 – Deutsche Bank is founded in Berlin.source
• 1870March – The Mitsubishi Company is established in Japan as a shipping firm, by Iwasaki Yatarō with Thomas Blake Glover.source
• 1871April – The Stockholms Handelsbank is founded.source
• 1871June 27 – The Meiji government officially adopts the yen as Japan's modern unit of currency. Coins which have been made in advance with the date 1870 are released into circulation.source
• 1871June 29 – Trade unions are legalized in the United Kingdom by the Trade Union Act 1871.source
• 1871October 8 – Continental AG is founded as Continental-Caoutchouc und Gutta-Percha Compagnie in Hanover, Germany.source
• 1871December 19 – The city of Birmingham, Alabama, is incorporated with the merger of three existing towns.source
• 1872April – Japan introduces its first modern paper currency (designed by Italian engraver Edoardo Chiossone) in the form of Meiji Tsuho notes. These are initially worth up to 1 yen before higher denominations are printed/released in June and August.source
• 1872June 14 – Trade unions are legalised in Canada.source
• 1872July 1 – Schenker, predecessor of DB Schenker, the worldwide logistics and freight operator, is founded in Vienna, Austria.source
• 1872November 12 – Dresdner Bank is founded in Dresden, Germany.source
• 1872November 22 – "Spitzeder Swindle": Adele Spitzeder's pioneering Ponzi scheme in Munich collapses.source
• 1872Kimberly, Clark and Co. is founded in Neenah, Wisconsin, by John A. Kimberly, Charles B. Clark, Havilah Babcock and Franklyn C. Shattuck.source
• 1873February 12 – The Coinage Act of 1873 in the United States is signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. Coming into effect on April 1, it ends bimetallism in the U.S., and places the country on the gold standard.source
• 1873March 29 – The Rio Tinto Company is formed in Spain, following the February 17 purchase of the Rio Tinto Mine from the Spanish government by a British investment group.source
• 1873May 9 – Der Gründerkrach: The Wiener Börse (Vienna stock exchange) crash in Austria-Hungary ends the Gründerzeit, and heralds the global Panic of 1873 and Long Depression.source
• 1873July 9 – The government of Otto von Bismarck in a united Germany introduces the gold mark, a unified currency to replace the various legal tender of the nation-states of the German Confederation..source
• 1873September 18 – The New York stock market crashes as the Jay Cooke & Company investment firm declares bankruptcy, triggering the Panic of 1873, part of the Long Depression.source
• 1873December 16 – The Heineken Brewery is founded in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.source
• 1873The Swedish arms company Aktiebolaget (AB) Bofors-Gullspång, better known as Bofors, is founded.source
• 1873The Married Woman's Property Rights Association is founded in Sweden.source
• 1873Konishiya Rokubei, predecessor of the Konica Minolta worldwide imaging brand, is founded in Tokyo, Japan.source
• 1874Schindler Group, known for escalators and elevators, is founded in Switzerland.source
• 1875March 3 – The Page Act of 1875 is enacted in the United States, effectively prohibiting the immigration of Chinese women.source
• 1875July 9 – Asia's first stock exchange is established as The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association (the modern-day Bombay Stock Exchange).source
• 1875July 28 – Joe Borden throws the first no-hitter in baseball history versus Mike Golden and the Chicago White Stockings in his third start as a replacement for Cherokee Fisher as a member of the Philadelphia White Stockingssource
• 1875October – The Ottoman state declares partial bankruptcy, and places its finances in the hands of European creditors. It is also suffering widespread nationalist rebellions resulting in Russian intervention and Great Power tensions.source
• 1876May 10 – Major pharmaceutical brand Eli Lilly is founded in Indiana, United States.source
• 1876September 26 – Global consumer goods and personal care company Henkel is founded by Friedrich Karl Henkel in Aachen, Germany.source
• 1876December 2 – Chugai Economic Daily, predecessor of Nikkei Economic Daily (Nihon Keizai Shinbun), is first issued in Tokyo, Japan.source
• 1876Adolphus Busch's brewery, Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, Missouri, first markets Budweiser, a pale lager, as a nationally sold beer.source
• 1876Star Oil Company, predecessor of the global Chevron energy product and sales brand, is founded in California.source
• 1878May 15 – The Tokyo Stock Exchange is established.source
• 1878November 26 – American-born artist James McNeill Whistler's libel case against English critic John Ruskin, over a review of the painting Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket (in which Whistler is described as "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face"), is decided in the High Court of Justice in London. Whistler wins a farthing in nominal damages and only half of the costs, leading to his bankruptcy, and alienates patrons.source
• 1878Geiger (corporation), formed as Geiger Brothers.source
• 1879June 21 – German chemical company Linde is founded by Carl von Linde.source
• 1879August 1 – Tokio Marine (insurer) is founded in Japan, as Tokio Marine Holdings.source
• 1880August 26 – Competing circus owners P. T. Barnum and James A. Bailey sign a contract in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to create the Barnum & Bailey Circus. In 1907, the circus will merge forces with another competitor, the Ringling Brothers Circus.source
• 1880October 1 – German company Munich Re is founded in Munich.source
• 1881February 25 – Phoenix, Arizona, is incorporated.source
• 1882January 2 – The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates.source
• 1882March 28 – German medical products company Beiersdorf is founded.source
• 1882August 3 – The United States Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1882, imposing a head tax on immigrants to the U.S. and excluding undesirables.source
• 1882August 5 – Standard Oil of New Jersey, the company later known as ExxonMobil, is established.source
• 1884May 4 – The Panic of 1884 creates a credit shortage that accelerates the current United States economic recession into the Depression of 1882–1885.source
• 1884May 16 – Sweden's Finance Minister Robert Themptander becomes his country's Prime Minister (1884–88).source
• 1885July 16 – BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary), a worldwide mining and natural gas producer is founded in New South Wales, Australia.source
• 1885July – Japan Brewery, predecessor of Kirin Holdings, is founded in Yokohama, Japan.source
• 1885October 12 – The city of Fresno, California, is incorporated.source
• 1886September – Avon Products, a worldwide cosmetics and household brand is founded by David H. McConnell in New York City, United States.source
• 1886Scotch whisky distiller William Grant & Sons is founded.source
• 1886Yorkshire Tea is established in Harrogate, England.source
• 1886Johnson & Johnson, which becomes a multinational brand, begins manufacturing healthcare products in New Jersey, United States.source
• 1886Food product and processing brand Del Monte Foods is founded in California, United States.source
• 1887June 28 – Minot, North Dakota, is incorporated as a city.source
• 1887October 12 – Yamaha Corporation, the global musical instrument and audiovisual brand, is founded as Yamaha Organ Manufacturing in Hamamatsu, Japan.source
• 1887December 25 – Glenfiddich single malt Scotch whisky is first produced.source
• 1887Nagase Shoten (長瀬商店), predecessor of Japanese cosmetics and toiletry brand Kao Corporation, is founded in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan.source
• 1887Tokyo Fire Insurance, predecessor of Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance, is founded.source
• 1887American financial services company A. G. Edwards is founded by General Albert Gallatin Edwards in St. Louis, Missouri.source
• 1887Global construction and real estate development company Skanska is founded in Malmö, Sweden.source
• 1888March 13 – The De Beers diamond mining conglomerate is founded by Cecil Rhodes in Kimberley, Northern Cape (South Africa).source
• 1888May 10 – Nippon Oil Corporation, predecessor of Eneos, a petroleum and gas energy brand in Japan, is founded in Niigata Prefecture.source
• 1888May 12 – The North Borneo Chartered Company's territories (including Sabah) become the British protectorate of North Borneo.source
• 1888Katz's Delicatessen is founded on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.source
• 1888Global pharmaceutical and health care brands are founded in the United States:source
• 1889May 28 – Rubber tire company Michelin is registered by Édouard and André Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand, France.source
• 1889August 14–September 15 – London Dock Strike: Dockers strike for a minimum wage of sixpence an hour ("The dockers' tanner"), which they eventually receive, a landmark in the development of New Unionism in Britain.source
• 1889September 23 – The Nintendo Koppai (later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded in Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi, to produce and market Hanafuda playing cards.source
• 1889October 29 – The British South Africa Company receives a Royal Charter.source
• 1890February 5 – The worldwide insurance and financial service brand Allianz is founded in Berlin, Germany.source
• 1890June 16 – Royal Dutch Petroleum, predecessor of Royal Dutch Shell, the major worldwide energy production and sales company, is founded in the Netherlands to develop an oilfield in Pangkalan Brandan, North Sumatra.source
• 1890August 23 – The BOVESPA stock exchange is founded in São Paulo, Brazil.source
• 1891September 29 – Thyssen, predecessor of the Thyssen Krupp worldwide conglomerate, is founded in Duisburg, Germany.source
• 1891A predecessor of the Japanese personal care brand Lion Corporation is founded as Kobayashi Tomijirō Shōten (小林富次郎商店).source
• 1892April 15 – The General Electric Company is established through the merger of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company and the Edison General Electric Company.source
• 1892July 4 – Samoa changes its time zone from 4 hours ahead of Japan to being 3 hours behind California, such that it crosses the International Date Line, and Monday, July 4 occurs twice.source
• 1892September 15 – Sergei Witte replaces Ivan Vyshnegradsky as Russian finance minister.source
• 1893May 5 – Panic of 1893: A crash on the New York Stock Exchange starts a depression.source
• 1893December 20 – Evergreen Park, Illinois, is incorporated.source
• 1894August 31 – New Zealand enacts the world's first minimum wage law, to take effect on January 1, in the passage of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894.source
• 1895January 21 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in United States v. E. C. Knight Co. that Congress and the U.S. federal government cannot regulate manufacturing, and dismisses an antitrust lawsuit against American Sugar Refining Company, which controls 98 percent of sugar refining in the United States.source
• 1895February 20 – The gold reserve of the U.S. Treasury is saved when J. P. Morgan and the Rothschilds loan $65 million worth of gold to the United States government. The offering of syndicate bonds sells out only 22 minutes after the New York market opens, and just two hours after going on sale in London.source
• 1895July 31 – The Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco) is founded by Sabino Arana.source
• 1895The Swarovski Company is founded by Armand Kosman, Franz Weis and Daniel Swarovski in the Austrian Tyrol, for the production of crystal glass.source
• 1895The Raiffeisen model of Cooperative Credit and Saving Bank, predecessor of Rabobank, a worldwide multiple financial service provider, is founded in the Netherlands.source
• 1896March 9 – Responding to national outrage at the defeat at Adwa, Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi resigns.source
• 1896May 26 – Eleven years after its foundation, a group of 12 purely industrial stocks are chosen to form the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the U.S. The index is composed entirely of industrial shares for the first time.source
• 1896July 26 – The International Socialist Workers and Trade Union Congress opens in London.source
• 1896August 1 – The Park Seung-jik shop, predecessor of South Korean conglomerate Doosan Group, is founded in Joseon (the kingdom of Korea).source
• 1896September 28 – Pathé Frères, a French film company and one of the oldest film companies, is founded by the brothers Charles Pathé, Théophile Pathé, Émile Pathé and Jacques Pathé.source
• 1896November 21 - The Hamburg dockworkers' strike of 1896-97 is considered one of the largest labour disputes in the German Empire.source
• 1897April 15 – Yamaichi Securities founded in Japan; it will cease trading a hundred years later.source
• 1897December 12 – Belo Horizonte, the first planned city in Brazil, is incorporated.source
• 1898June 19 – Food processing giant Nabisco is founded in Chicago by merger as the National Biscuit Company.source
• 1899January 15 – The General Federated Union, representing 100,000 laborers in the U.S. state of New York, is formed from a merger of the Central Labor Union and the Central Labor Federation.source
• 1899January 23 – The New York Stock Exchange has the largest day of business in its history, with 1,527,644 shares of stock changing hands.source
• 1899January 31 – The French Senate passes the trade agreement with Italy by a vote of 248 to 40.source
• 1899February 1 – The Suntory whisky distiller and worldwide alcoholic and soft drink brand of Japan is established by Shinjiro Torii in Osaka as a store selling imported wines.source
• 1899May 27 – Rangers F.C., one of the most successful teams in the Scottish Football League, is incorporated.source
• 1899June 15 – Cycle & Carriage, now one of the largest investment companies in Singapore, is founded, initially to sell bicycles and motor vehicles.source
• 1899July 7 – The Great Lakes Towing Company is incorporated by John D. Rockefeller and William G. Mather to acquire more than 150 tugboats to control shipping in four of the North American Great Lakes and quickly builds a monopoly on Great Lakes traffic.source
• 1899July 17 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.source
• 1899July 24 – In the first trade treaty signed by the U.S. after the passage of the Dingley Act, France and the United States sign an agreement for a 20% reduction of France's existing tariffs on 635 items, in return for the U.S. reduction between 5% and 20% of duty fees on 126 items.source
• 1899Oxo beef stock cubes are introduced, by Liebig's Extract of Meat Company.source
• 1899Giros-Loucheur Group, predecessor of Vinci, a worldwide construction and infrastructure industry, founded in France.source