# Production and labor Firms, factories, accounting, industrial organization, state capitalism, multinationals, asset stripping, and the labor order. *This story part of: The corporation* *This story parallel: Asset stripping and the corporate raiders* *This story parallel: The multinational corporation and the nation-state* *This story parallel: Countries run like corporations: state capitalism and company sovereigns* *Regional pacts and communities part of this story* *The Internationals part of this story* *The corporation part of this story* *Capitalism, liberalism, and the isms part of this story* *The Gulf and the oil monarchies part of this story* *Colonialism: the conquest of the world part of this story* *The pillars of modern power part of this story* *The Renaissance: the rebirth of antiquity part of this story* *South Africa: a deep history part of this story* *De Beers and the diamond model of extraction part of this story* *Freemasonry in South Africa part of this story* *Asset stripping and the corporate raiders part of this story* *The Scramble for Africa part of this story* *The Great War of Africa: the Congo wars part of this story* *The Portuguese Empire: from Sagres to the Carnation Revolution part of this story* *Françafrique: how France kept its African colonies after independence part of this story* *The Boer War: gold, the camps, and the making of South Africa part of this story* *The Plaza Accord and the endaka turn part of this story* ## c. 8001 BCE — Clay tokens count the first surpluses Long before writing, farmers and temple stores in the ancient Near East tracked grain, oil, and livestock with small shaped clay tokens, one token standing for one unit of goods. The archaeologist Denise Schmandt-Besserat argued this token system was the direct ancestor of writing and numbers, a reading that is widely cited but also contested by some scholars. ## c. 3301 BCE — Writing is born from a bill of goods Accountants in Sumer sealed clay tokens inside hollow clay balls called bullae, then pressed the token shapes onto the outside so the contents could be read without breaking the ball. Marking the surface soon replaced the tokens entirely, and these impressed signs became early cuneiform. On this account the first writing was invented not for poetry or law but to record who owed what. ## c. 2501 BCE — Egyptian scribes audit the royal storehouses The pharaonic state ran on written inventories of grain, cattle, and labor kept by a trained class of scribes who counted goods in and out of royal and temple storehouses. Their work was checked by overseers, an early form of audit, and scribes held high status precisely because they controlled the records of wealth. ## c. 24 BCE — Rome keeps the accounts of an empire Roman households and the state kept systematic accounts. Heads of households recorded daily cash in a diary and posted it to a formal ledger, and the emperor Augustus published a summary of imperial finances, the rationarium, and left a record of his own accounts. Roman practice tracked receipts and payments carefully but did not use the balancing double-entry method that came later. ## c. 578 — Founding of Kongo Gumi Prince Shotoku brings builders from Baekje to construct the Shitenno-ji temple, and the Kongo family firm they establish becomes the world's oldest documented company. It builds Buddhist temples in Japan for over 1,400 years. ## c. 1110 — The Exchequer counts with tally sticks Medieval England ran royal finance through the Exchequer, which recorded debts on notched wooden tally sticks split in two so debtor and Crown each held a matching half that could not be forged. The system lasted centuries. When the old tallies were finally burned in 1834 the fire destroyed the Houses of Parliament. ## c. 1288 — Founding of Stora Kopparberg A deed from 1288 records the sale of a share in the Falun copper mine, the oldest known share document in any company. The mining enterprise later becomes Stora, an ancestor of today's Stora Enso. ## c. 1300 — Italian merchants invent double-entry bookkeeping As trade, credit, and partnerships grew in the merchant cities of Florence, Genoa, and Venice, bookkeepers developed the method of recording every transaction twice, as a debit in one account and a credit in another, so the books always balanced. The technique spread with Italian commerce and let a merchant see at a glance whether he was solvent. It is often called the Venetian method, though it grew across several cities. ## 1340 — The Genoese city accounts show double-entry in full The surviving ledgers of the Genoa city treasury, the Massari accounts of 1340, are among the earliest documents that show a complete double-entry system with matching debits and credits. Fragments from Florentine merchant houses point to the method appearing decades earlier, so the exact birthplace and date remain debated among historians. ## c. 1410 — Datini leaves the archive of a medieval merchant The Tuscan merchant Francesco Datini ran trading and banking offices across Europe and kept meticulous double-entry books, opening each ledger with the motto in the name of God and profit. His counting house left roughly 150,000 letters and hundreds of account books, one of the richest records of how medieval business actually kept its accounts. ## 1494 — Pacioli codifies double-entry in print The friar and mathematician Luca Pacioli published Summa de arithmetica, a math textbook that included a section describing the Venetian method of double-entry bookkeeping in clear steps. Printed on the new press, it spread the technique across Europe and earned Pacioli the title father of accounting. Historians stress he did not invent double-entry but was the first to write it down systematically for a wide audience. ## 6 February 1555 — Founding of the Muscovy Company Queen Mary I charters the Muscovy Company to trade with Russia, making it the first major English chartered joint-stock company. Its permanent capital model becomes the template for later trading companies. ## 31 December 1600 — Founding of the English East India Company Elizabeth I grants a royal charter to the East India Company with a monopoly on English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. The company later conquers and rules much of India before the Crown takes over in 1858. ## c. 1600 — Joint-stock companies create the need for audited accounts Chartered trading companies like the East India Company pooled money from many outside shareholders who could not watch the business themselves. Investors had to trust managers with their capital, which created a demand for independent accounts and for someone to check them. The spectacular collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720 hardened the idea that company books needed outside scrutiny. ## 20 March 1602 — Dutch East India Company granted sovereign powers The States General chartered the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) and gave it powers normally reserved for a state: to sign treaties, wage war, build forts, coin money, and govern territory in Asia. A joint-stock company with shareholders thus became a sovereign in its own right across the Indian Ocean. It is the clearest early case of a business that was also a government. ## 20 March 1602 — Founding of the Dutch East India Company The Dutch States General charters the VOC with a trade monopoly to Asia. It becomes the first company to issue tradeable shares to the public and dominates Asian sea trade for nearly two centuries. ## 10 April 1606 — Founding of the Virginia Company James I charters the Virginia Company to plant English colonies in North America. Its Jamestown settlement of 1607 becomes the first permanent English colony in the Americas. ## c. 1615 — Founding of Sumitomo Masatomo Sumitomo opens a book and medicine shop in Kyoto around 1615, and the family soon builds a copper smelting and mining business. The house grows into one of Japan's great zaibatsu conglomerates. ## 3 June 1621 — Founding of the Dutch West India Company The Dutch States General charters the West India Company with a monopoly on trade in the Atlantic. It founds New Amsterdam, later New York, and runs a large share of the Dutch slave trade. ## 1664 — Founding of the French East India Company Finance minister Colbert founds the Compagnie des Indes Orientales to compete with the Dutch and English in Asian trade. It establishes French footholds in India, setting up a century of Anglo-French rivalry there. ## 2 May 1670 — Founding of the Hudson's Bay Company Charles II charters the Hudson's Bay Company with a fur trade monopoly over the vast watershed of Hudson Bay. For two centuries it acts as the de facto government of much of what becomes Canada. ## 2 May 1670 — Hudson's Bay Company chartered to rule Rupert's Land A royal charter from Charles II gave the Hudson's Bay Company a trade monopoly and governing authority over Rupert's Land, a vast drainage basin covering much of present-day Canada. The company acted as landlord, court, and administrator across territory larger than many European states. Corporate rule over the region lasted until the land was sold to Canada in 1870. ## 1672 — Founding of the Royal African Company Charles II charters the Royal African Company with a monopoly on English trade with West Africa, including trade in enslaved people. It ships more enslaved Africans to the Americas than any other single institution. ## 1673 — Founding of Mitsui Mitsui Takatoshi opens the Echigoya dry goods store in Edo, selling kimono fabric at fixed cash prices, a retail innovation. The Mitsui house grows into one of Japan's largest zaibatsu and the ancestor of Mitsui Group. ## c. 1701 — Jethro Tull develops the seed drill Jethro Tull introduced a horse-drawn seed drill that sowed seeds in neat rows at a controlled depth. It reduced waste and raised crop yields, a step in the wider agricultural improvement that fed a growing population. ## 1709 — Darby smelts iron with coke at Coalbrookdale Abraham Darby succeeded in smelting iron ore using coke instead of scarce charcoal. The method freed ironmaking from dependence on wood and allowed production to expand near coalfields. ## 1711 — Founding of the South Sea Company The British government charters the South Sea Company, granting it a monopoly on trade with Spanish South America in exchange for taking over government debt. Its shares become the object of wild speculation. ## 1712 — Newcomen builds the atmospheric steam engine Thomas Newcomen erected the first commercially successful steam engine to pump water from coal mines. It used atmospheric pressure and condensing steam, and it remained in use for decades despite heavy fuel consumption. ## August 1717 — Founding of the Mississippi Company John Law organizes the Compagnie d'Occident with a monopoly on trade with French Louisiana. Merged with other ventures and backed by Law's bank, it fuels France's first great stock mania. ## 1720 — Collapse of the Mississippi Bubble Shares in John Law's Mississippi Company crash after paper money issued against them loses public confidence. The collapse ruins investors, wrecks France's finances, and sours the country on banks and paper money for decades. ## 1720 — Collapse of the South Sea Bubble It was upon these solid foundations that Britain’s “credit” rested, despite early uncertainties, considerable political opposition, and a financial near-disaster like the collapse of the famous South > "It was upon these solid foundations that Britain’s “credit” rested, despite early uncertainties, considerable political opposition, and a financial near-disaster like the collapse of the famous South Seas Bubble of 1720. “Despite all defects in the handling of English public finance,” its historian has noted, “for the rest of the century it remained more honest, as well as more efficient, than that of any other in Europe.”12 The result of all this was not only that interest rates steadily dropped,* but also that British government stock was increasingly attractive to foreign, and particularly Dutch, investors. Regular dealings in these securities on the Amsterdam market thus became an important part of the nexus of Anglo-Dutch commercial and financial relationships, with important effects upon the economies of both countries.13 In power-political terms, its value lay in the way in which the resources of the United Provinces repeatedly came to the aid of the British war effort, even when the Dutch alliance in the struggle against France had been replaced by an uneasy neutrality." > — The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers ## c. 1730 — The Norfolk four-course crop rotation spreads Landowners such as Charles Townshend promoted a rotation of wheat, turnips, barley, and clover that kept fields productive without fallow years. Turnips and clover also fed more livestock through winter. ## 1731 — Founding of the Swedish East India Company Sweden charters its own East India Company in Gothenburg to trade with China. Its tea and porcelain trade makes it the largest trading company in Sweden during the 18th century. ## 1733 — Kay patents the flying shuttle John Kay's flying shuttle let a single weaver work a wide loom quickly and alone. Faster weaving increased demand for spun thread and pushed inventors toward mechanized spinning. ## c. 1750 to c. 1830 — Turnpike trusts improve the roads Turnpike trusts built and maintained better roads and charged tolls, with engineers like Telford and McAdam improving surfaces. Faster coaches and carts cut journey times before the railways. ## 1 May 1759 — Founding of Wedgwood Josiah Wedgwood opens his own pottery works in Staffordshire. His factory methods, marketing, and mass-produced fine ceramics make Wedgwood a pioneer of industrialized consumer goods. ## 31 December 1759 — Founding of Guinness Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000-year lease on the St. James's Gate brewery in Dublin. His porter brewery grows into the largest in the world by the late 19th century. ## July 1761 — The Bridgewater Canal opens The Duke of Bridgewater's canal carried coal from Worsley to Manchester and halved the price of coal in the city. Its success launched a wave of canal building across Britain. ## c. 1764 — Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny James Hargreaves built a machine that let one worker spin several threads at once. The spinning jenny sharply raised the output of yarn and helped mechanize the cotton industry. ## 12 August 1765 — East India Company takes the Diwani of Bengal After winning at Buxar, the English East India Company obtained the Diwani, the right to collect taxes across Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, from the Mughal emperor. A trading firm now held the revenue and administration of one of the richest regions on earth. From this point the Company governed millions of people as a business enterprise backed by its own private army. ## 1769 — Arkwright patents the water frame Richard Arkwright patented a water-powered spinning frame that produced strong cotton thread. The machine needed a mill and a workforce, pointing toward the factory system. ## 5 January 1769 — Watt patents the separate condenser James Watt patents the separate condenser, the improvement that makes steam power efficient and practical. The engine becomes the driving force of the Industrial Revolution, which transforms how humanity works, travels, and lives. ## 1771 — Arkwright opens Cromford Mill Richard Arkwright built a water-powered cotton mill at Cromford, often called the first modern factory. It gathered machines and workers under one roof on shift work, a model widely copied. ## 1774 — Wilkinson builds a precision cannon-boring machine John Wilkinson patented a boring machine that could cut true cylinders. Its accuracy made Watt's steam engine cylinders airtight and practical to manufacture. ## 1775 — Boulton and Watt form their steam engine partnership Matthew Boulton and James Watt joined to build and sell improved steam engines from the Soho works. The firm supplied power to mines, mills, and factories across Britain. ## 1775 — Founding of Boulton & Watt Matthew Boulton and James Watt form a partnership to build Watt's improved steam engine at the Soho works in Birmingham. Their engines power mines, mills, and factories, driving the Industrial Revolution. ## 1779 — Crompton develops the spinning mule Samuel Crompton combined features of the jenny and the water frame into the spinning mule. It spun fine, strong yarn in quantity and became the mainstay of cotton spinning. ## c. 1780 to c. 1850 — The factory system reshapes work Production moved from homes and small workshops into large factories built around powered machines. Work was set by the clock and by the pace of the machine, changing daily life for millions. ## 1782 — Watt builds the rotative steam engine James Watt patented gearing that turned the engine's up and down stroke into rotary motion. Steam could now drive mill machinery directly, not just pump water. ## 1784 — Cort patents the puddling and rolling process Henry Cort developed puddling to make wrought iron with coal, and grooved rollers to shape it. The methods raised the quality and quantity of British iron. ## 1785 — Cartwright patents the power loom Edmund Cartwright patented a loom driven by power rather than by hand. Early versions worked poorly, but improved power looms later displaced handloom weavers. ## c. 1790 to c. 1797 — Canal mania grips Britain A rush of investment funded a national network of canals to move coal, iron, and goods cheaply. The waterways cut transport costs sharply before the railway age. ## c. 1790 to c. 1820 — Parliamentary enclosure peaks in England Thousands of enclosure acts fenced off open fields and commons into private farms. Enclosure raised farm output but pushed many rural laborers off the land and toward towns and factories. ## c. 1790 to c. 1850 — The mill town emerges Towns grew up around cotton and other mills, with rows of workers' housing near the works. Places like Manchester and Oldham became dense centers of industrial employment. ## 1798 — Malthus publishes An Essay on the Principle of Population Thomas Malthus argued that population tends to grow faster than the food supply, leading to hardship. His work shaped debate over poverty, wages, and industrial society. ## 1799 to 1800 — Parliament passes the Combination Acts The Combination Acts banned workers from joining together to bargain for wages or hours. They drove early trade unions underground until their repeal in 1824. ## 31 December 1799 — Dissolution of the Dutch East India Company Deep in debt after decades of decline and war with Britain, the VOC is formally dissolved and its possessions taken over by the Dutch state. Its Asian territories become the Dutch East Indies. ## c. 1800 to c. 1850 — Industrial cities and slums grow rapidly Towns such as Manchester, Leeds, and Glasgow swelled as people arrived to work in factories. Crowded, unsanitary housing bred disease, and cholera outbreaks swept the slums. ## c. 1800 — Maudslay builds the screw-cutting lathe Henry Maudslay built a lathe that cut screw threads to a precise, repeatable standard. His work founded the machine-tool trade that made accurate parts for other machines. ## c. 1800 to c. 1900 — The great coalfields power industry Coal from fields in the Midlands, the north of England, Wales, and Scotland fueled steam engines, furnaces, and homes. Cheap, plentiful coal underpinned the whole industrial economy. ## 1802 — Founding of DuPont French emigre chemist E.I. du Pont founds a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine River in Delaware. The company grows into one of the world's largest chemical makers, later inventing nylon, Teflon, and Kevlar. ## 21 February 1804 — Trevithick runs the first steam railway locomotive Richard Trevithick's high-pressure steam locomotive hauled a load along the Penydarren tramway. It proved that a steam engine could pull a train on rails. ## 1811 to 1816 — The Luddites break industrial machines Textile workers smashed machines they blamed for cutting jobs and wages. The government sent troops and made machine-breaking a capital crime, and the protests were crushed. ## 20 November 1811 — Founding of Krupp Friedrich Krupp founds a cast steel works in Essen. Under his son Alfred it becomes Europe's largest company and Germany's dominant arms and steel maker, arming the country through both world wars. ## c. 1815 to c. 1850 — The American system of interchangeable parts takes hold Armories and workshops built products from standardized, interchangeable parts that fit without hand fitting. The method sped assembly and repair and set the stage for mass production. ## 16 August 1819 — The Peterloo Massacre Cavalry charged a large peaceful crowd calling for political reform at St Peter's Field, killing and injuring many. The event became a symbol of the demand for the vote and workers' rights. ## 1824 — Parliament repeals the Combination Acts Workers regained the legal right to form unions when the Combination Acts were repealed. A wave of union activity followed, though the law was tightened again the next year. ## 27 September 1825 — The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens The Stockton and Darlington was the first public railway to use steam locomotives to haul goods. It showed that rail could move heavy freight over distance at low cost. ## October 1829 — Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill Trials George and Robert Stephenson's locomotive Rocket outperformed its rivals in a public contest to choose engines for the new railway. Its design set the pattern for the steam locomotive. ## 15 September 1830 — The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens The Liverpool and Manchester was the first railway to link two major cities using steam locomotives for all traffic. It carried both passengers and freight on a fixed timetable and proved the commercial railway. ## c. 1830 to c. 1870 — The industrial working class and trade unions rise Factory work created a large wage-earning class with shared interests. Workers built trade unions to bargain over pay and conditions and to press for political reform. ## 7 June 1832 — The Great Reform Act widens the vote The Reform Act redrew electoral boundaries and gave seats to growing industrial towns. It extended the vote to more middle-class men but left most workers without it. ## 1 July 1832 — Founding of Jardine Matheson Scottish traders William Jardine and James Matheson found a trading house in Canton dealing in tea, cotton, and opium. The firm helps push Britain into the First Opium War and becomes a pillar of colonial Hong Kong commerce. ## 29 August 1833 — The Factory Act of 1833 limits child labour The Factory Act restricted the hours of children in textile mills and created inspectors to enforce the law. It was an early move to curb the worst abuses of factory work. ## March 1834 — The Tolpuddle Martyrs are transported Six farm laborers were sentenced to transportation to Australia for swearing a union oath. A public outcry secured their pardon and made them a landmark in union history. ## 14 August 1834 — The New Poor Law is passed The Poor Law Amendment Act cut cash relief and pushed the poor into workhouses with harsh conditions. It aimed to reduce costs but caused widespread hardship and anger. ## 9 September 1835 — England reforms borough government into municipal corporations The Municipal Corporations Act reorganized town government in England and Wales into elected municipal corporations, legal bodies that own property, hold debt, and act as a single person in law. Cities were literally incorporated, run through a corporate form borrowed from business. Modern local government still rests on this idea of the city as a corporation. ## 31 October 1837 — Founding of Procter & Gamble Candle maker William Procter and soap maker James Gamble sign a partnership in Cincinnati. P&G becomes a giant of branded consumer goods and a pioneer of modern advertising, including the first soap operas. ## April 1838 — Brunel's SS Great Western crosses the Atlantic Isambard Kingdom Brunel's wooden paddle steamer was built for regular transatlantic service. It showed that steamships could reliably carry passengers across the ocean. ## 8 May 1838 — Chartism launches the People's Charter The People's Charter set out six demands, including votes for all men and secret ballots. Chartism became a mass movement of working people pressing for political rights. ## 1841 — Whitworth sets standard screw threads Joseph Whitworth proposed a uniform standard for screw threads that engineers widely adopted. Common standards let parts made in different workshops fit together. ## 1842 — Chadwick reports on the sanitary condition of the labouring population Edwin Chadwick's report linked disease and early death in the towns to filth, bad water, and poor drainage. It built the case for public spending on sanitation. ## 19 July 1843 — Brunel launches the SS Great Britain The SS Great Britain was the first large ship built of iron and driven by a screw propeller. It combined features that became standard in ocean-going steamships. ## c. 1844 to c. 1847 — Railway mania sweeps Britain A frenzy of investment funded hundreds of new railway lines across the country. Many schemes collapsed when the bubble burst, but the boom built much of the national network. ## 1845 — Engels publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England Friedrich Engels described the poverty, overcrowding, and disease he saw among workers in Manchester and other cities. The book became an influential indictment of industrial capitalism. ## 8 June 1847 — The Ten Hours Act limits the working day The Factory Act of 1847 capped the working day for women and young people in textile mills at ten hours. It was a major win for the movement to shorten hours. ## 12 October 1847 — Founding of Siemens Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske found a telegraph works in Berlin. The firm builds pioneering telegraph lines, dynamos, and electric railways, growing into Europe's largest electrical engineering company. ## 31 August 1848 — The Public Health Act of 1848 The act set up local boards of health with power to improve water supply, drainage, and sewers. It marked the start of organized state action on public health in Britain. ## c. 1849 — The great audit firms take shape The firms that would dominate world auditing were founded in Victorian Britain, among them Deloitte, Price Waterhouse, and the partnerships that became Peat Marwick and Coopers. They grew by auditing railways, banks, and industrial companies, then followed their clients abroad. Their global reach later made them the Big Eight, then through mergers and the fall of Andersen the Big Four. ## October 1851 — Founding of Reuters Paul Julius Reuter opens a telegraph office in London transmitting stock prices between London and Paris. His agency becomes one of the world's dominant news services. ## 1854 — Scotland charters the first accountants Societies of accountants in Edinburgh and Glasgow received royal charters, the first formal recognition of accountancy as a distinct profession and the origin of the title chartered accountant. Much early work came from bankruptcy and insolvency, untangling the books of failed businesses in an industrializing economy. ## 1856 — Bessemer patents his steel converter Henry Bessemer devised a converter that blew air through molten iron to burn off impurities and make steel cheaply. Cheap steel transformed rails, ships, and building. ## 2 August 1858 — Crown takes over rule of India from the East India Company After the 1857 rebellion, the Government of India Act abolished Company rule and transferred its Indian territories, armies, and revenues directly to the British Crown. The episode marked the outer limit of governing a subcontinent as a private company. It is often read as the moment a state formally reclaimed what a corporation had been running. ## 1 August 1863 — Founding of Bayer Friedrich Bayer and Johann Weskott found a dye factory in Barmen. The company moves into pharmaceuticals and in 1899 trademarks aspirin, one of the most widely used drugs in history. ## 1865 — The Siemens-Martin open-hearth process is developed The open-hearth furnace, drawing on the Siemens regenerative design and the Martin brothers' work, made large batches of steel from scrap and pig iron. It gave finer control than the Bessemer converter and came to dominate steelmaking. ## 6 April 1865 — Founding of BASF The Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik is founded to make synthetic dyes on the Rhine. It later industrializes the Haber-Bosch process for synthetic ammonia and becomes the world's largest chemical company. ## 12 May 1865 — Founding of Nokia Mining engineer Fredrik Idestam wins a permit for a wood pulp mill in Tampere, Finland. The paper company later diversifies and, more than a century on, becomes the world's largest mobile phone maker. ## 1866 — Founding of Nestle The Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company opens in 1866, and Henri Nestle launches his infant food in Vevey the next year. The merged company becomes the world's largest food and drink business. ## c. 1867 — Singer builds factories abroad and pioneers the modern multinational The Singer sewing machine company opened a factory in Glasgow, one of the first cases of an American firm manufacturing overseas rather than just exporting. Singer built a global sales and production network decades before the term multinational existed. Business historians often treat it as the template for the modern company that operates across many national borders at once. ## 1868 — Founding of Tata Group Jamsetji Tata founds a trading firm in Bombay. The Tata group goes on to build India's first large steel plant, its first luxury hotel, and pioneering ventures in power, chemicals, and software, becoming India's largest conglomerate. ## 10 May 1869 — The first transcontinental railroad is completed Rail lines from east and west met in Utah, linking the United States coast to coast by rail. The route cut a cross-country journey from months to about a week. ## 17 November 1869 — The Suez Canal opens The Suez Canal joined the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, letting ships avoid the long route around Africa. It shortened trade routes between Europe and Asia and boosted world commerce. ## 1870 — Founding of Mitsubishi Iwasaki Yataro founds the Tsukumo Shokai shipping firm, soon renamed Mitsubishi. It grows into one of Japan's great zaibatsu, spanning shipping, mining, banking, shipbuilding, and heavy industry. ## 10 January 1870 — Founding of Standard Oil John D. Rockefeller and partners incorporate Standard Oil in Ohio. Through relentless consolidation it comes to control about 90 percent of American oil refining, the archetype of the industrial monopoly. ## c. 1871 — The sovereign-citizen claim that governments are secret corporations Sovereign-citizen and pseudolaw groups claim the United States secretly became a private corporation through an 1871 act and that citizens can opt out of its authority. This is a debunked pseudolegal myth: the 1871 law only organized the municipal government of the District of Columbia and changed nothing about national sovereignty. The real, documented story is the state-capitalism and corporate-governance blur covered by the other events here, chartered companies, state-owned firms, sovereign wealth funds, and incorporated cities, not a hidden conspiracy. *Source: The Truth About Frivolous Arguments - Section I (A to C)* *Source: What do judicial officers need to know about sovereign citizens?* ## 1873 — Founding of Rio Tinto British investors buy the ancient Rio Tinto copper mines in Spain from the Spanish government and float the company in London. It becomes one of the world's largest mining groups. ## 1 June 1874 — Dissolution of the East India Company The East India Company is formally dissolved, sixteen years after the Crown took over its Indian territories following the 1857 rebellion. It ends 274 years as the most powerful company in history. ## 1 April 1876 — Founding of Ericsson Lars Magnus Ericsson opens a telegraph repair workshop in Stockholm. The firm moves quickly into telephones and becomes one of the world's leading telecom equipment makers. ## 9 July 1877 — Founding of the Bell Telephone Company Alexander Graham Bell's backers organize the Bell Telephone Company to commercialize his telephone patent. It evolves into AT&T, which dominates American telecommunications for a century. ## 1880 — England founds its institute of chartered accountants Several regional bodies merged by royal charter into the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, setting entrance exams and standards of conduct. The move turned accountancy into a gatekept profession with a controlled qualification, a model soon copied across the English-speaking world. ## 1880 — George Pullman builds a company town near Chicago The railcar maker George Pullman built an entire town where his company owned the houses, shops, church, and utilities and set the rents his workers paid. It was a place where a corporation ran the functions of local government. When Pullman cut wages but not rents in 1894, the resulting strike showed the dangers of a firm doubling as a landlord and ruler. ## 2 January 1882 — The Standard Oil Trust builds a global oil empire John D. Rockefeller consolidated his companies into the Standard Oil Trust, a structure that controlled most of America's refining and reached deep into foreign markets from Europe to Asia. Its scale, secrecy, and pricing power made it the model of the giant firm that outgrew any single government's easy control. The oil industry it shaped would produce the cross-border majors that dominate the century to come. ## 1 October 1883 — Founding of Benz & Cie Karl Benz founds Benz & Cie in Mannheim and two years later builds the Patent-Motorwagen, the first practical automobile. The company later merges with Daimler to form Mercedes-Benz. ## 5 February 1885 — Congo Free State becomes King Leopold's private property The Berlin Conference recognized King Leopold II of Belgium as personal sovereign of the Congo Free State, which he owned and ran as private property rather than a Belgian colony. He extracted rubber and ivory through forced labor, and the death toll ran into the millions. Belgium annexed the territory in 1908 only after the atrocities became an international scandal. ## 8 January 1886 — Founding of Westinghouse Electric George Westinghouse founds Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh to develop alternating current power. Backing Tesla's AC system, it wins the war of the currents against Edison's direct current. ## 8 May 1886 — Founding of Coca-Cola Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells his Coca-Cola syrup at Jacobs' Pharmacy in Atlanta. Under Asa Candler the drink becomes the world's most widely distributed product and a symbol of American culture. ## 12 March 1888 — Founding of De Beers Cecil Rhodes consolidates the Kimberley diamond mines into De Beers Consolidated Mines. The company controls most of the world's diamond supply for the next century. ## 3 September 1888 — Imperial British East Africa Company chartered A royal charter authorized the Imperial British East Africa Company to administer and develop territory in what became Kenya and Uganda. The company collected duties, ran stations, and exercised governing powers on Britain's behalf until it went bankrupt and the state took over in the 1890s. It shows how private firms were used as the cheap first layer of empire. ## 23 September 1889 — Founding of Nintendo Fusajiro Yamauchi founds Nintendo in Kyoto to make hanafuda playing cards. Nearly a century later it reinvents itself as a video game company and revives the industry with the Famicom and Mario. ## 29 October 1889 — British South Africa Company chartered under Cecil Rhodes A royal charter gave Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company the right to govern, police, and exploit territory north of the Transvaal, land that became Rhodesia and carried his name. The company raised its own armed forces, granted land, and ran the administration as a commercial venture. Corporate rule continued into the 1920s before the territories passed to formal colonial government. ## 15 May 1891 — Founding of Philips Gerard Philips and his father found a light bulb factory in Eindhoven. Philips grows into one of the world's biggest electronics firms and co-develops the compact cassette and the CD; its chip unit spawns ASML and NXP. ## 1892 — Founding of Eastman Kodak George Eastman incorporates Eastman Kodak, four years after launching the Kodak camera with the slogan 'You press the button, we do the rest.' Kodak makes photography a mass consumer activity. ## 15 April 1892 — Founding of General Electric Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston merge to form General Electric. The company dominates American electrical industry for a century and is a founding member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. ## 1 July 1892 — Founding of Carnegie Steel Andrew Carnegie consolidates his steel operations into the Carnegie Steel Company. Using Bessemer technology and ruthless cost cutting, it becomes the largest and most profitable steel maker in the world. ## 1896 — New York creates the Certified Public Accountant New York passed the first law licensing the title Certified Public Accountant, requiring an examination and setting a legal standard for who could audit and certify accounts. Other states followed, building the American profession around the CPA license rather than the British chartered model. ## 20 July 1897 — Founding of Marconi's wireless company Guglielmo Marconi registers the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company in London to commercialize radio. Its transatlantic transmissions and ship-to-shore wireless launch the radio communications industry. ## 30 March 1899 — Founding of United Fruit The United Fruit Company forms from a merger of banana traders in Boston. Its control of land, railways, and politics in Central America gives rise to the term 'banana republic.' ## 25 February 1901 — Founding of U.S. Steel J.P. Morgan merges Carnegie Steel with rivals to form United States Steel, the world's first billion-dollar corporation. At its creation it produces about two thirds of American steel. ## 1903 — Milton Hershey builds a company town in Pennsylvania Chocolate maker Milton Hershey built the town of Hershey around his factory, providing housing, schools, transport, and parks for his workers. It was a more benevolent version of the company town, but the company still shaped daily life and local services. Such towns show private firms taking on the roles usually held by municipalities. ## 16 June 1903 — Founding of Ford Motor Company Henry Ford incorporates the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. Its Model T of 1908 becomes the first car cheap enough for ordinary families, putting America and then the world on wheels. ## 1906 — Founding of Xerox The Haloid Company is founded in Rochester to make photographic paper. It later commercializes xerography as Xerox, and its PARC lab invents the graphical user interface, Ethernet, and laser printing. ## 15 March 1906 — Founding of Rolls-Royce Charles Rolls and Henry Royce formally found Rolls-Royce to build luxury cars. The company later becomes one of the world's leading aero engine makers, powering Allied aircraft in both world wars. ## 1907 — Formation of Royal Dutch Shell Royal Dutch Petroleum and Britain's Shell Transport and Trading merge to challenge Standard Oil. The combined group becomes one of the world's largest oil companies. ## 16 September 1908 — Founding of General Motors William Durant founds General Motors as a holding company for Buick, soon adding Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Chevrolet. Under Alfred Sloan it becomes the world's largest automaker and a model of the modern corporation. ## 14 April 1909 — Founding of Anglo-Persian Oil (BP) The Anglo-Persian Oil Company is founded after the first major oil strike in the Middle East, in Persia in 1908. The British government buys a controlling stake in 1914, and the company becomes British Petroleum. ## 1910 — Founding of Hitachi Namihei Odaira founds Hitachi as an electrical repair shop at a copper mine, building Japan's first 5-horsepower electric motors. It grows into one of Japan's largest industrial and electronics groups. ## 1911 — Ford takes mass production across borders Ford opened an assembly plant at Trafford Park near Manchester, extending American mass-production methods into Europe, and soon built plants in Germany and beyond. Fordism became a globally exported system, not just a set of factories but a model of industrial organization. The car majors became early examples of firms whose operations, workforce, and influence spanned continents. ## 15 May 1911 — Breakup of Standard Oil The U.S. Supreme Court finds Standard Oil an illegal monopoly and orders it split into 34 companies, among them the ancestors of Exxon, Mobil, and Chevron. It remains the landmark antitrust action in business history. ## 16 June 1911 — Founding of IBM The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company forms from a merger of punched card and scale makers, renamed IBM in 1924. Under the Watsons it comes to dominate business machines and then the computer industry. ## 1 December 1913 — Ford launches the moving assembly line Ford installs the first moving assembly line for cars at its Highland Park plant, cutting Model T chassis assembly from over 12 hours to about 93 minutes. Mass production transforms manufacturing worldwide. ## 15 July 1916 — Founding of Boeing William Boeing incorporates the Pacific Aero Products Company in Seattle, renamed Boeing the next year. It becomes the world's leading builder of airliners, including the 707 and 747 that define the jet age. ## 7 March 1918 — Founding of Panasonic Konosuke Matsushita founds Matsushita Electric in Osaka, starting with light socket adapters. It becomes one of the world's largest consumer electronics makers under the Panasonic and National brands. ## 4 April 1923 — Founding of Warner Bros The four Warner brothers incorporate their film studio in Hollywood. Its 1927 release The Jazz Singer, the first feature with synchronized speech, ends the silent film era. ## 16 October 1923 — Founding of Walt Disney Company Walt and Roy Disney found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Los Angeles. Mickey Mouse, the first feature-length animated film, and theme parks make Disney the world's dominant entertainment company. ## December 1925 — Founding of IG Farben BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, and other German chemical firms merge into IG Farben, the largest chemical company in the world. Deeply complicit in Nazi crimes, including a factory at Auschwitz, it is broken up by the Allies after 1945. ## 14 March 1927 — Founding of Pan American Airways Pan American Airways is founded, flying its first mail route from Key West to Havana. Under Juan Trippe it pioneers transoceanic flying boats and the jet age, becoming the unofficial U.S. flag carrier. ## 17 September 1928 — The oil majors carve up the world at Achnacarry At a secret meeting in a Scottish castle, the heads of Standard Oil of New Jersey, Shell, and Anglo-Persian signed the As-Is Agreement to freeze market shares and stop competing on price. It became the foundation of the cartel later known as the Seven Sisters, which set global oil prices and output for decades. The pact showed a handful of private firms coordinating across borders in ways that shaped the economies of entire nations. ## 1929 — Formation of Unilever Britain's Lever Brothers and the Dutch Margarine Unie agree to merge, creating Unilever with dual British and Dutch parents. It becomes one of the world's largest consumer goods companies. ## 1932 — Founding of Lego Carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen starts making wooden toys in Billund, Denmark, naming the firm Lego from 'leg godt,' play well. Its interlocking plastic brick, patented in 1958, becomes the world's best known toy. ## 29 May 1933 — Founding of Saudi Aramco Saudi Arabia signs an oil concession with Standard Oil of California, which forms the California Arabian Standard Oil Company, later Aramco. Sitting on the world's largest oil reserves, it becomes the most valuable oil company on earth. ## 1934 — After the Crash, the SEC makes audits the law In response to the 1929 crash and the fraud exposed in the Depression, Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission and required public companies to file audited financial statements. Independent audit stopped being a courtesy to investors and became a legal duty, which vastly expanded the accounting profession and its power. ## 28 May 1937 — Founding of Volkswagen The Nazi labor front founds Volkswagen to build Ferdinand Porsche's 'people's car,' with a factory at what becomes Wolfsburg. After the war the Beetle becomes the best selling car in history and VW a global auto giant. ## 28 August 1937 — Founding of Toyota Kiichiro Toyoda spins the Toyota Motor Corporation out of his father's loom works. Its lean production system becomes the world's most studied manufacturing method, and Toyota becomes the largest automaker. ## 1 March 1938 — Founding of Samsung Lee Byung-chul founds Samsung as a small trading company in Daegu dealing in groceries and dried fish. It grows into South Korea's largest chaebol, spanning electronics, shipbuilding, and construction. ## 7 June 1938 — Founding of Pemex After President Cardenas expropriates foreign oil companies, Mexico creates the state firm Petroleos Mexicanos. The nationalization becomes a model cited by oil-producing countries worldwide. ## 1 January 1939 — Founding of Hewlett-Packard Bill Hewlett and David Packard formalize their partnership, working from a Palo Alto garage now marked as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. HP grows into a leading maker of instruments, computers, and printers. ## 1943 — Founding of IKEA Seventeen-year-old Ingvar Kamprad founds IKEA in rural Sweden, initially selling by mail order. Its flat-pack furniture and giant stores make it the world's largest furniture retailer. ## 7 May 1946 — Founding of Sony Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita found Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo in bombed-out Tokyo, renamed Sony in 1958. Transistor radios, the Trinitron, the Walkman, and the PlayStation make it a symbol of Japan's postwar rise. ## 1947 — Founding of Hyundai Chung Ju-yung founds the Hyundai construction company in Seoul. The chaebol expands into shipbuilding and cars, building the world's largest shipyard and helping drive South Korea's industrialization. ## 1947 — Founding of LG Koo In-hwoi founds Lak Hui Chemical in Busan, making cosmetics and later Korea's first plastics. With its Goldstar electronics arm it becomes the LG chaebol, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates. ## 24 September 1948 — Founding of Honda Soichiro Honda incorporates the Honda Motor Company in Hamamatsu, starting with motorized bicycles. It becomes the world's largest motorcycle maker and a major automaker known for its engines. ## 1953 — Kuwait sets up the first sovereign wealth fund Kuwait established the Kuwait Investment Board in London to invest oil earnings abroad, years before it became fully independent. It is generally regarded as the first sovereign wealth fund, a state body that manages national savings like an investment firm. The idea of a country holding a global portfolio starts here. ## 10 February 1953 — Founding of ENI Italy creates the state energy group ENI under Enrico Mattei. Mattei's deals offering producer countries better terms challenge the dominance of the major Anglo-American oil companies. ## 3 October 1953 — Founding of Petrobras Brazil founds the state oil company Petrobras under the slogan 'the oil is ours.' It later pioneers deepwater drilling and becomes Latin America's largest company. ## 15 April 1955 — Founding of McDonald's Corporation Ray Kroc opens his first franchised McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois, building on the McDonald brothers' fast service system. The chain becomes the world's largest restaurant company and a symbol of globalization. ## 1957 — Founding of Fairchild Semiconductor Eight engineers leave Shockley Semiconductor to found Fairchild, which co-invents the integrated circuit. Its alumni go on to found Intel, AMD, and dozens of other firms, seeding Silicon Valley. ## 1960 — The term multinational corporation is coined Former public official and business figure David Lilienthal used the phrase multinational corporation in a 1960 lecture to describe firms based in one country but operating across many. The label spread quickly as postwar companies expanded overseas. Naming the phenomenon helped turn it into a subject of study and a target of political concern. ## 2 July 1962 — Founding of Walmart Sam Walton opens the first Walmart discount store in Rogers, Arkansas. Its logistics-driven low prices make it the world's largest retailer and largest private employer. ## 25 January 1964 — Founding of Nike Phil Knight and coach Bill Bowerman found Blue Ribbon Sports to import Japanese running shoes, relaunching it as Nike in 1971. Its swoosh and athlete marketing make it the world's largest sportswear company. ## 9 August 1965 — Singapore becomes independent and is run as Singapore Inc On separation from Malaysia, Lee Kuan Yew's government set out to run the new state with the discipline of a company, courting investors, planning long term, and paying ministers like executives. Commentators labeled the approach Singapore Inc, a nation managed as if it were a corporation. It became the leading example of the country-as-firm idea. ## 1966 — Founding of Reliance Industries Dhirubhai Ambani, who began trading spices and yarn in 1958, incorporates Reliance Textiles and builds a synthetic fabrics mill. Reliance grows into India's largest private company, spanning petrochemicals, refining, and telecom. ## 1967 — The American Challenge warns Europe of US firms French journalist Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber's bestseller The American Challenge argued that US multinationals were quietly becoming the third-largest industrial power in Europe through direct investment. The book captured a wave of alarm about foreign firms buying up and out-competing national industries. It framed the multinational as a strategic actor able to reshape economies from the outside. ## 18 July 1968 — Founding of Intel Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore leave Fairchild to found Intel. It launches the first commercial microprocessor in 1971 and its chips power the personal computer revolution. ## 13 January 1969 — Founding of Samsung Electronics Samsung founds its electronics arm in Suwon, initially making televisions. It becomes the world's largest maker of memory chips and smartphones and the core of the Samsung group. ## 18 December 1970 — Founding of Airbus France and Germany form the Airbus consortium in Toulouse to build the A300 airliner. The European venture grows into Boeing's only rival in large commercial aircraft. ## 1971 — Sovereignty at Bay names the fear of corporate power Economist Raymond Vernon's book Sovereignty at Bay crystallized the worry that multinational firms were escaping the control of the nation-states that hosted them. The phrase became shorthand for a whole debate about whether governments could still govern companies that could shift money, production, and jobs across borders. Vernon himself was more measured than the slogan, but the title stuck. ## March 1971 — Founding of Starbucks Starbucks opens its first store near Pike Place Market in Seattle, selling roasted coffee beans. Under Howard Schultz it turns the espresso bar into a global retail format with tens of thousands of stores. ## 1 April 1972 — Founding of SAP Five former IBM engineers found SAP in Germany to build standard business software. Its enterprise resource planning systems come to run the accounting and logistics of most large corporations. ## 1973 — GAAP is set by an independent standards board The Financial Accounting Standards Board was created to write US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, taking rule-making out of the hands of the profession's own trade body. Standardized rules meant investors could compare one company's accounts against another, though critics note that detailed rules also give clever accountants a map of exactly where the lines are. ## 1974 — The UN sets up a watchdog for transnational corporations Spurred partly by revelations about ITT in Chile, the United Nations created machinery to study and monitor transnational corporations, leading to the UN Centre on Transnational Corporations. Its work included a long, ultimately stalled effort to draft a binding code of conduct for multinationals. The episode marked the first serious attempt at global governance aimed squarely at corporate power across borders. ## 4 April 1975 — Founding of Microsoft Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft in Albuquerque to sell BASIC for the Altair microcomputer. Its MS-DOS and Windows operating systems come to run the vast majority of the world's personal computers. ## 1976 — Abu Dhabi launches its sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi created the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to turn oil income into a diversified global portfolio of stocks, bonds, and property. The emirate manages national wealth the way a large asset manager runs a fund. It became one of the biggest sovereign investors in the world. ## 1 April 1976 — Founding of Apple Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne found Apple to sell Wozniak's Apple I computer. The Macintosh, iPod, and iPhone later make Apple the most valuable company in the world. ## 16 June 1977 — Founding of Oracle Larry Ellison and partners found Software Development Laboratories, later Oracle, to build the first commercial SQL relational database. Oracle databases become the standard for corporate data. ## 1979 — World Economic Forum ranks nations for competitiveness The forum that became the World Economic Forum began publishing a report that scored and ranked countries on their competitiveness, much like a league table of firms. Later measures such as the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business followed the same logic. Treating states as competitors for capital reframed government as a matter of business performance. ## 26 August 1980 — China opens the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone China designated Shenzhen a Special Economic Zone with its own business-friendly rules, tax breaks, and openness to foreign investment, apart from the rest of the country. A fishing region was governed as a purpose-built enterprise zone and grew into a megacity. Special zones treat a patch of territory as a product designed to attract capital. ## May 1981 — Singapore founds GIC to invest its reserves The government set up the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation to manage the country's foreign reserves as a long-term global fund. Together with Temasek it made Singapore a major state investor abroad. The state runs its savings with the outlook of a professional money manager. ## 2 July 1981 — Founding of Infosys N.R. Narayana Murthy and six colleagues found Infosys with about 250 dollars of capital. It becomes a flagship of India's software outsourcing industry and a maker of middle-class wealth through employee stock. ## 1 January 1984 — Breakup of AT&T A federal antitrust settlement splits the Bell System, separating AT&T from seven regional phone companies. The breakup ends a century-long telephone monopoly and opens U.S. telecommunications to competition. ## 1 April 1984 — Founding of ASML Philips and ASM International spin off ASML in Veldhoven to build chip lithography machines. Its extreme ultraviolet machines later become the only tools capable of making the most advanced chips. ## 10 December 1984 — Founding of Cisco Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner of Stanford found Cisco Systems to sell multiprotocol routers. Its equipment carries much of the internet's traffic, and in 2000 it is briefly the world's most valuable company. ## 21 February 1987 — Founding of TSMC Morris Chang founds the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the first pure-play chip foundry. Making chips designed by others, it becomes the world's most advanced chipmaker and a linchpin of the global economy. ## 15 September 1987 — Founding of Huawei Former army engineer Ren Zhengfei founds Huawei in Shenzhen, initially reselling phone switches. It becomes the world's largest telecom equipment maker and a focal point of U.S.-China technology tensions. ## 17 September 1988 — Founding of CNPC China dissolves its Ministry of Petroleum and creates the China National Petroleum Corporation to run its oil and gas industry. CNPC and its listed arm PetroChina become one of the world's largest energy groups. ## 8 August 1989 — Founding of Gazprom The Soviet Ministry of Gas Industry is converted into the State Gas Concern Gazprom, the USSR's first state corporate enterprise. Privatized after 1991, it controls the world's largest gas reserves and Russia's export pipelines. ## 1990 — Norway builds its oil fund as a national portfolio Parliament created the fund that became the Government Pension Fund Global to save oil revenue and invest it in stocks and bonds worldwide. It grew into the largest sovereign wealth fund on earth, owning small slices of thousands of companies. The country holds much of its wealth the way an index investor holds a diversified portfolio. ## 27 November 1990 — Founding of Arm Acorn, Apple, and VLSI Technology found Advanced RISC Machines in Cambridge. Its licensed low-power chip designs end up in almost every smartphone on earth. ## 4 December 1991 — Collapse of Pan Am Pan American World Airways ceases operations after decades of losses, deregulation, and the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The fall of the pioneering international airline marks the end of aviation's golden age. ## 5 April 1993 — Founding of Nvidia Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem found Nvidia to build graphics chips. Its GPUs turn out to be ideal for training neural networks, making Nvidia the central supplier of the AI boom and one of the world's most valuable companies. ## 4 April 1994 — Founding of Netscape Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen found the company behind the Navigator web browser. Its 1995 IPO ignites the dot-com boom, and its loss of the browser war to Microsoft becomes a defining antitrust case. ## 5 July 1994 — Founding of Amazon Jeff Bezos founds Amazon in a Bellevue garage as an online bookstore. It grows into the dominant force in e-commerce and, through Amazon Web Services, invents the cloud computing industry. ## 29 August 1997 — Founding of Netflix Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph found Netflix as a DVD-by-mail service. Its shift to streaming in 2007 upends television and the film industry worldwide. ## 4 September 1998 — Founding of Google Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporate Google in a Menlo Park garage. Its PageRank search engine and advertising model make it the gateway to the web and one of history's most profitable companies. ## 11 November 1998 — Founding of Tencent Pony Ma and partners found Tencent in Shenzhen, launching the QQ messenger. Its WeChat super-app and games business make it China's most valuable technology company. ## c. 1998 — The Big Eight shrink to the Big Four A wave of mergers cut the world's leading audit firms from eight to five, and the criminal collapse of Arthur Andersen after Enron in 2002 left four. Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG came to audit nearly every large public company on earth, a concentration that regulators warn leaves the system dangerously dependent on a handful of firms. ## 28 June 1999 — Founding of Alibaba Former English teacher Jack Ma and 17 co-founders launch Alibaba from his Hangzhou apartment. Its Taobao and Tmall marketplaces make it the dominant force in Chinese e-commerce, and its 2014 IPO is then the largest ever. ## 30 November 1999 — Formation of ExxonMobil Exxon and Mobil, the two largest fragments of Standard Oil, complete an 81 billion dollar merger. It reunites much of Rockefeller's empire and creates what is then the world's largest company. ## January 2000 — Founding of Baidu Robin Li and Eric Xu found Baidu in Beijing. It becomes China's dominant search engine and later a major investor in autonomous driving and artificial intelligence. ## 2001 — The world reaches for one set of accounting rules The International Accounting Standards Board was set up to produce International Financial Reporting Standards, aiming for one accounting language across borders. More than a hundred countries adopted IFRS, but the United States kept its own GAAP, so full global convergence stalled. The split reflects real differences in legal systems and in who the accounts are meant to serve. ## 2 December 2001 — Collapse of Enron Energy trader Enron files what is then the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history after massive accounting fraud is exposed. The scandal wipes out employee pensions and leads to the Sarbanes-Oxley reforms. ## 2002 — Founding of SpaceX Elon Musk founds SpaceX to cut the cost of spaceflight. Its reusable Falcon rockets and Starlink constellation make it the dominant commercial launch provider and the first private company to fly astronauts to orbit. ## June 2002 — Collapse of Arthur Andersen Accounting giant Arthur Andersen is convicted of obstruction for shredding Enron audit documents and surrenders its licenses, ending a 89-year-old firm. The Big Five accounting firms become the Big Four. ## 21 July 2002 — Collapse of WorldCom Telecom carrier WorldCom files for bankruptcy after revealing billions in fraudulent accounting, surpassing Enron as the largest U.S. bankruptcy to date. CEO Bernard Ebbers is later jailed for fraud. ## 1 July 2003 — Founding of Tesla Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning incorporate Tesla Motors, soon joined and led by Elon Musk. Its electric cars force the global auto industry to abandon the internal combustion engine. ## 4 February 2004 — Founding of Facebook Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launches thefacebook.com from his dorm. Renamed Meta in 2021, the company's social networks come to connect billions of people and reshape media and politics. ## 2005 — Nation branding is measured like a corporate brand Policy adviser Simon Anholt launched the Nation Brands Index, which surveys global opinion and ranks countries as if they were consumer brands. Governments began hiring consultants to manage their image, tourism, and investment appeal the way firms manage marketing. The nation was recast as a brand to be positioned and sold. ## January 2006 — Collapse of Kongo Gumi Unable to service debts taken on during Japan's bubble era, the 1,428-year-old temple builder Kongo Gumi goes into liquidation and its assets pass to Takamatsu Construction. The world's oldest independent company ends. ## 2009 — The charter city idea proposes governing zones by contract Economist Paul Romer publicly promoted charter cities, new urban zones run under rules set by an outside authority or private operator to import better governance. The idea later shaped Honduras's ZEDE zones and the private city project Prospera. Critics warn it can hand core functions of government to corporate operators, reviving the logic of the chartered company. ## 1 June 2009 — Collapse of General Motors General Motors files for bankruptcy during the financial crisis, the largest industrial bankruptcy in U.S. history. A government-backed restructuring saves a smaller GM, with taxpayers briefly its majority owner. ## 23 September 2010 — Collapse of Blockbuster Video rental chain Blockbuster files for bankruptcy after failing to answer Netflix and streaming, having once passed on buying Netflix for 50 million dollars. It becomes the standard cautionary tale of digital disruption. ## 19 January 2012 — Collapse of Kodak Eastman Kodak files for bankruptcy after digital photography destroyed its film business, a technology Kodak itself invented in 1975. It becomes a byword for incumbents overtaken by their own innovations. ## March 2012 — Founding of ByteDance Zhang Yiming founds ByteDance in a Beijing apartment. Its recommendation-driven apps Douyin and TikTok become the first Chinese consumer software to dominate globally, reshaping online video. ## 25 April 2014 — Nokia exits the mobile phone business Nokia completes the sale of its phone division to Microsoft after the iPhone and Android destroyed its market lead. The onetime maker of 4 in 10 of the world's phones retreats to network equipment. ## 11 December 2015 — Founding of OpenAI Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and others found OpenAI as a research lab aiming at safe artificial general intelligence. Its ChatGPT launch in 2022 becomes the fastest-adopted consumer product in history and sets off the AI boom. ## 15 October 2018 — Collapse of Sears Sears, once America's largest retailer and the inventor of the mail-order catalog economy, files for bankruptcy after years of decline against Walmart and Amazon. ## 25 June 2020 — Collapse of Wirecard German payments firm Wirecard files for insolvency after admitting 1.9 billion euros on its balance sheet likely never existed. The fraud at a DAX company becomes Germany's biggest postwar corporate scandal. ## 11 November 2022 — Collapse of FTX Cryptocurrency exchange FTX files for bankruptcy after customer funds are found to have been funneled to founder Sam Bankman-Fried's trading firm. Bankman-Fried is convicted of fraud, and the crash deepens a broad crypto winter. ## March 2025 — Collapse of Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company files for creditor protection and liquidates its Canadian department stores, closing them by mid-2025. North America's oldest company ends 355 years of continuous operation.