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QWERTY

From the early typewriters, the QWERTY keyboard layout has stood the test of time.

Gyroscope

The gyroscope: a remarkable device used to guide everything from submarines to satellites.

Cellophane

Cellophane transformed how consumers purchased food, as well as how producers sold it.

Langstroth Hive

The Langstroth Hive: a wooden box that made the industrialisation of the bee possible.

Consumerism and Christmas have gone hand in hand for a surprisingly long time

Plough

The plough kick-started civilisation - and ultimately made our modern economy possible.

Cold Chain

Refrigeration revolutionised the food industry, and other industries too.

Welfare State

Do welfare states boost economic growth, or stunt it? It's not an easy question to answer.

Property Register

Property rights for the world's poor could unlock trillions in 'dead capital'.

Management Consulting

If managers often have a bad reputation, what about those who tell them how to manage?

Double-entry Bookkeeping

Renaissance man Luca Pacioli wrote the definitive book on double-entry bookkeeping.

S-Bend

The S-bend was a pipe with a curve in it, an invention that led to public sanitation.

Radar

A high-tech 'death ray' capable of zapping sheep led to the invention of radar.

Market Research

Market research marked a shift from a producer-led to a consumer-led approach to business.

Plastic

We make so much plastic these days that it takes about eight percent of oil production.

Seller Feedback

Without seller feedback, companies like eBay might not have grown as they have.

Paper Money

Currency derives value from trust in the government which issues it.

Limited Liability Company

How some legal creativity has created vast wealth down the centuries.

Dynamo

The big story behind the way dynamos made electricity useful.

Leaded Petrol

When lead was added to petrol, it made cars more powerful - but it also poisoned people.

Department Store

Harry Selfridge pioneered a whole new retail experience with his London department store.

Barbed Wire

'Lighter than air, stronger than whiskey' - barbed wire wreaked huge changes in America.

Tax Havens

Gabriel Zucman invented an ingenious way to estimate how much wealth is hidden offshore.

Infant Formula

For many new mothers who want, or need, to get back to work, infant formula is a godsend.

Index Fund

Warren Buffett is one of the world's great investors. His advice? Invest in an index fund.

Tally Stick

The tally stick shows us what money really is: a kind of debt that can be traded freely.

Passport

If anyone could work anywhere, some economists think global economic output would double.

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property reflects an economic trade off when it comes to innovation.

Video Game

From Spacewar to Pokemon Go, video games have shaped the modern economy in surprising ways

Cuneiform

Cuneiform, the earliest known script, was used to create the world's first accounts.