Timbuktu is located in the modern state of Mali, in West Africa. For several centuries during the Medieval period Timbuktu was one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world. It was an important city in the empires of Songhai and Mali. Much of Timbuktu’s wealth was derived from its status as a trading city - gold, ivory, and salt were all traded in large quantities.

The vast majority of the profitability of Portuguese colonies in Brazil was initially derived from massive sugar plantations. Much later, in the nineteenth century, Brazil would derive much of its wealth from rubber plantations.

The Hanseatic League was a confederation of guilds and market towns in Northern Europe during the early modern period (1358-1800). It controlled much of the trade in the Baltic Sea and maintained an army for the mutual protection of towns and cities in the league. The primary goal of the Hanseatic League was to protect and encourage trade in Northern Europe.

The first contact between European civilization and Japan occurred in 1543. Soon after Portuguese traders and merchants in East Asia arrived in Japan and began trading with the local population. The Portuguese monopolized trade with East Asia in the early years of European exploration and colonialism, but were soon joined by the Dutch, the Spanish, the English, and the French. Trading between Japan and Portugal continued for another half-century, until the Tokugawa Period of isolationism began in Japan.

The Hanseatic League was a loose confederation of guilds and market towns in northern Europe. It was first established in the fourteenth century and continued to be influential until the early nineteenth century. The Hanseatic League was created to protect the economic interests and sovereignty of cities and towns in northern Europe.

Joint-stock companies first emerged in Europe during the medieval period and became more common during the sixteenth century and the first wave of European exploration and colonialism. Joint-stock companies were created so that investors could pool their resources and negate personal risk. The Muscovy Company in London and the English East India Company are two early examples of joint-stock companies that were created to facilitate and monopolize trade.

Almost all of the trade in the Indian Ocean was dominated by Arab traders in the centuries leading up to the era of European exploration. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with the invention of the caravel and the establishment of Portuguese trading outposts throughout the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese began to take over maritime trade in the Indian Ocean.

The Spanish conquest of Manila (in the Philippines) in 1571 was instrumental in facilitating the trade of silver between Spanish America and China. Silver, during this time period, was extremely valuable and in extremely high demand in Chinese society and most of the world’s supply of silver was coming from immensely profitable silver mines in Spanish owned South America.

Tulip Mania, which occurred in The Netherlands during the Dutch Golden Age from 1619-1622. It resulted in widespread speculation and over-investment in tulip bulbs throughout The Netherlands before the collapse of prices in 1622. At the peak of this phenomenon a single tulip traded at ten-times the average yearly salary of a skilled craftsman. 

Adam Smith was a prominent academic in the 1700's. He is considered to be the father of the field of economics. He was a prolific writer and theorist on the subject of wealth and how nations economic policies affect each other.