1690
The British East India Company establishes a trading base in Calcutta.
1690
William Penn instructs Pennsylvania settlers to preserve one acre of trees for every five acres cleared.
1690s
Paris becomes the first European city with an extensive sewer system.
1690
William of Orange defeats Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne which ensures the dominance of the Protestant Ascendancy.
1693
White's Club in London is founded as a Chocolate House.
1694 - 1778
Voltaire.
1694
The Hudson's Bay Company York Factory is captured by the French, but recaptured a year later.
1694
Establishment of the Bank of England.
1695
Major reserves of gold are discovered in Brazil, prompting one of the first gold rushes.
1695
‘Soft-paste’ porcelain factory set up at St Cloud in France though not a perfect imitation.
1696
Dutch traders translocate coffee plants from Yemen to Jakarta, Indonesia.
1696
Board of Trade established to promote trade in overseas plantations.
1697
The Treaty of Ryswick cedes the western third of Hispaniola to France. The enlarged colony of Saint Domingue becomes rich on the sale of sugar cane.
1698
Exiled French Huguenot weavers such as Louis Crommelin breathe new life into the Linen Industry in Ireland.
1698
William III passes the Enclosure Act for the increase and preservation of timber in the New Forest. Navy Forests are planted and serious forest management begins.
1698
Zanzibar falls under the control of the Sultan of Oman and is an important port for the Spice trade. Spices are planted on the island.
1698
Private trading of slaves introduced in British Empire.
1698
The steam engine in invented by Thomas Savery.
1699
The Ottoman Empire cedes Hungary at the Treaty of Karlowitz.
1699 - 1701
William Dampier is sent on a mission to explore New Holland and maps the coast of Western Australia.
1700
The importation of printed calico in Britain is banned.
1700
Isaac Newton, British Master of the Mint, values gold at nearly 85s per ounce.
1700
69,500 beaver hats are exported from British ports.
1700
In the preceeding Century exports of Madeira to North America more than quintuple from 1200 pipes a year to 6500 pipes a year.
1700
Sea coal consumption increases in England as deforestation worsens.
1700 - 1721
Great Northern War.
1700
Kaolin unwittingly discovered in Saxony and used as a hair powder.
1700
Massive trend in England for the collecting of porcelain led by Queen Mary, consort of William III.
1701
Ellis Veryard describes how the Spanish make and drink chocolate in An Account of Divers Choice Remarks Taken in a Journey through the Low Countries, France, Italy, and Part of Spain.
1701 - 1714
War of the Spanish Succession between France, Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal and others.
1701
Jethro Tull improves the seed drill and his invention helps to increase cereal production.
1701
Coal is discovered near Richmond in Virginia.
1702 - 1713
Queen Anne's War. Britain and France fight in Canada, New England, the Carolinas and Florida for control of the Americas. Many Native Indians are killed and Spanish Missions in Florida are destroyed.
1703
A great storm destroys over 4,000 trees in the New Forest.
1703 - 1704
William Dampier makes a second circumnavigation and leaves Alexander Selkirk (the model for Robinson Crusoe) on a desert island after a disagreement. He returns to find him in 1709. They raid Spanish shipping.
1703 - 1791
John Wesley, Protestant reformer.
1703
The Dutch term koekje (little cake) is given to a hard baked biscuit or cookie.
1704
Isaac Newton publishes his book Opticks about lenses and light.
1704
The British Government tries to break Britain's reliance on Baltic timber by encouraging trade with the American colonies.
1704
Battle of Blenheim - combined British, Dutch, Austrian, Danish and Prussian forces under the Duke of Marlborough defeat the French and Bavarian armies, decisively changing the course of the war.
1705
The steam piston engine is invented by Thomas Newcomen.
1706 - 1790
Benjamin Franklin.
1706
Daniel Duncan writes Wholesome advice against the abuse of Hot Liquors particularly of Coffee, Chocolate, Tea, Brandy and Strong-waters.
1706
Benjamin Franklin born. He would campaign to improve sanitation in Boston.
1708
Christopher Wren completes St Paul's Cathedral in London.
1708
The East India Company formally enters the opium traffic.
1708
In great secrecy in Saxony, Germany, something close to hard-paste porcelain is created by Johann Friederich Böttger and Ehrenfried Waller von Tschimaus.
1709 - 1784
Samuel Johnson.
1709
Abraham Darby of Coalbrookdale, England uses coal instead of wood for manufacturing iron.
1710
Porcelain factory created at Meissen, Germany, under auspices of the Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony. ‘Hard-paste’ porcelain is produced.
1711
Dutch traders plant Indonesian grown seedlings in Java.
1711
A vineyard is established at Chateau d'Yquem and becomes famous for sweet Sauternes wine.
1711
The British East India Company establishes a trading base at Canton.
1712 - 1778
Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
1712 - 1786
Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.
1712
Thomas Newcomen develops the first truly successful steam engine.
1713 - 1784
Denis Diderot, editor of the Encyclopédie.
1713
The Dutch provide French King Louis XIV with a coffee bush.
1713
The Treaty of Utrecht ends the War of Spanish Succession and Queen Anne's War. The French and Spanish crowns are separated and Spain's Italian and Spanish possessions are reallocated. Britain is given Gibraltar and Minorca and France recognises the Hudson's Bay Company territories.
1714
Britain acquires Gibraltar from Spain having captured it in 1704.
1715
France captures Mauritius.
1715 - 1774
Reign of Louis XV of France.
1715 - 1717
The Yamasee War between the Yamasee Nation and the British.
1715 - 1900
Collecting of porcelain begins to attract ridicule and satire. “… a fine lady valued her mottled-green pottery quite as much as she valued her monkey, and much more than she valued her husband.” William Macauly.
1716
John Law sets up the Mississippi Company to assist French trade in North America. In 1717 it becomes the Company of the West.
1716
The Chianti region is established as a regional wine growing area.
1716
Establishment of Banque Générale in France.
1717
Thomas Twining opens Twining's Golden Lyon Tea Shop on the Strand - London's first tea shop.
1718
Canon Godinot publishes champagne making rules that he says were established by Benedictine monk, Dom Pérignon.
1718
The Ottoman Empire cedes Belgrade and Serbia to the Habsburgs at the Treaty of Passarowitz.
1718 - 1730
The Tulip Age of the Ottoman Empire. Greatly diminished it tries to establish peaceful relations with European states.
1718
The Bahamas are made a British crown colony.
1719
Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe set on a desert island in the Caribbean.
1720 - 1728
German naturalist Daniel Messerschmidt is tasked by Peter the Great with the exploration of Siberia. He finds the first mammoth fossils.
1721
Germany's first coffee house opens in Berlin.
1721
Parliament removes all duty from timber imported from the American colonies.
1721 - 1728
A rabies epidemic sweeps across Eastern Europe.
1723 - 1792
Joshua Reynolds.
1723
Gabriel de Clieu transplants coffee plants to Haiti.
1723
A commission in Boston discovers lead in alcohol stills is found to cause illness.
1724 - 1804
Immanuel Kant.
1724
Blenheim Palace is constructed to mark the success of the Duke of Blenheim in the wars against France.
1725 - 1728
Vitus Bering explores Kamchatka and sails through the strait that now bears his name.
1725
Poet John Gray writes a poem, “To a lady on her passion for Old China”, satirizing porcelain as his rival in love; China’s the passion of her soul; A cup, a plate, a bowl; Can kindle wishes in her breast; Inflame with joy, or break her rest.
1726
Gulliver's Travels is written by Jonathan Swift.
1727 - 1788
Thomas Gainsborough.
1727
Coffee is introduced to Brazil via Dutch Guiana.
1727
Criollo Cacao trees in Trinidad are blighted causing a massive crop failure. Plans are made to replant with the hardier Forastero cacao tree from the Amazon.
1727
Virginia recognises 'tobacco notes' as legal tender.
1728 - 1729
China’s Yongzheng Emperor issues a ban that distinguishes illegal opium mixed with tobacco from unadulterated medicinal opium.
1729 - 1797
Edmund Burke.
1729
Stephen Gray conducts electricity over long distances.
1730
Coffee is planted in Jamaica.
1730
The Virginia Inspections Acts are passed to prevent the adulteration of tobacco.
1730
Sweet Tokaj wine is recognised as a regional variety from Slovakia.
1730
The "tree huggers" belonging to the Bishnois branch of the Hindu faith in India are killed while trying to protect trees from foresters.
1730
Charles Townshend advocates the four crop rotation system using wheat, turnips, barley and clover.
1730
British East India Company importing 517,000 pieces of porcelain a year.
1732 - 1809
Joseph Haydn.
1733
John Kay invents the flying shuttle, speeding up the process of weaving.
1733
The UK Molasses Act placed a tax on all sugar from non-British colonies, widely encouraging sugar smuggling.
1733
First reference in EIC records of exports of Indian opium to China.
1733
Augustus the Strong of Saxony dies with a collection of 20,000 items of porcelain.
1735
The tea trade takes off in Russia.
1735
In France, an ‘unfaithful’ workman carries the secrets of the St Cloud factory to a new manufacturing centre at Chantilly.
1735
Factory founded by Florentine nobleman Marquis Ginori at La Doccia in Italy.
James Watt makes improvements to the Newcomen steam engine. Watt engines, powered by coal, are used in industrial and commercial capacities.
1736 - 1790
Ancient porcelains reproduced in Jingdezhen.
1737 - 1809
Thomas Paine.
1739
Benjamin Franklin petitions the Pennsylvania Assembly to stop waste dumping and remove tanneries from the commercial district.
1740 - 1749
A lucrative trade develops for sea otter pelts in the Pacific North West. A population of 150,000 to 300,000 is rapidly reduced to one or two thosand.
1740 - 1748
The War of the Austrian Succession is fought in Europe, India and North America. France, Spain, Prussia, Bavaria are pitted against Britain, the Dutch Republic, Hanover and the Holy Roman Empire. Marie Theresa retains the Austrian throne and Prussia controls Silesia.
1740 - 1744
George Anson sails around the world on the Centurion. He stops in Chile and China before capturing a Manila galleon with 1.3m pieces of eight.
1740
Marquis Ginori charters a ship and sends it to China to bring back earths used in the composition of porcelain for his La Doccia factory.
1740
Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour becomes a major patron of porcelain art.
1741
The Netherlands establish a colony in Demerara.
1742
The first cotton factories open in England, industrialising the weaving process.
1742 - 1743
James Isham documents his explorations in Canada on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company.
1743 - 1826
Thomas Jefferson.
1743
Emiliam Basov establishes a fur trade post on Bering Island.
1743
First porcelain factory in Britain at Chelsea under patronage of George II.
1743
Porcelain makes appearances in satirical and moralist paintings of William Hogarth (Marriage A-la-mode) as a symbol of excess and ill-spent money.
1744 - 1797
William Hodges - the official artist on board James Cook's second voyage of discovery well known for his paintings of Table Bay, Tahiti and Antarctica.
1744
Major new gold deposits are discovered in Russia.
1745
In the UK, tea tax is reduced from 4s to 1s, making tea more affordable and popular.
1745
French porcelain manufacture begins at Vincennes under the name Charles Adam – the finance minister’s brother – partly in order to compete with Britain and to try and halt costly imports.
1746 - 1828
Francisco Goya.
1747
Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy offers the first Western curry recipe. Curry powder (a blend of spices including coriander, tumeric, red pepper, fenugreek and others) starts to be imported to the West.
1747
German scientist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf discovers a way to extract sugar from sugar beet.
1747
William Hogarth depicts the Lord Mayor of London with a top hat, which then becomes fashionable.
1747 - 1756
Peak of Dutch East Indies imports of Bengal opium (average of 1,241 chests per year).
1748 - 1762
The American Jared Eliot writes Essays upon Field Husbandry.
1748
Coal production on a commercial scale begins in the USA for the first time. Coal mining began around Richmond, Virginia and was used in the manufacturing of war materials for the Revolutionary War.
1749 - 1832
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
1750
Coffee is planted in Sulawesi.
1750
There are over 100 sugar refineries in England, yielding significant tax for the Government.
1750
China proclaims Tibet as a protectorate.
1750
A typhus epidemic sweeps through London killing thousands.
1750
Porcelain factory at Dresden accused of producing pieces slowly to keep prices high.
1750
Jingdezhen export porcelain begins to be sent unpainted to Guangzou for enameling and decoration so merchants could supervise patterns.