The year 1348 brought the Black Death to England, killing roughly one-third of the population and shattering the economic foundations of feudalism. This demographic collapse forced surviving peasants into a position where they could demand higher wages or better contracts because labor was scarce.
Between 1760 and 1820, wholesale enclosure occurred in village after village, causing common rights to be lost. By the 19th century, unenclosed commons were largely limited to rough pasture in mountainous regions.
The Muscovy Company established itself in 1555 with a monopoly on trade between England and Muscovy. It was an offshoot of the earlier Company of Merchant Adventurers founded by Richard Chancellor, Sebastian Cabot, and Sir Hugh Willoughby.
Starting around 1760 in England, the Industrial Revolution marked a steady transition from hand production methods to machine production. James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny while Richard Arkwright developed the water frame.
Parliament passed the Bank Charter Act in 1844 tying these notes to gold reserves effectively creating central banking institutions. Notes became fully printed and widely available from 1855 onward.
The Russian revolution in 1917 established the first state with a ruling communist party in history. A decade later the Great Depression triggered increasing criticism of existing capitalist systems.