How many female entrepreneurs, bankers, and industrialists from the past can you name? You could be forgiven for thinking that, until relatively recently, there were none at all. Women are commonly assumed to have spent most of history as housewives. But in my new book, Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power, I present a revised economic history of the world—one that places women at the heart of the development of the global economy. Here are just five of the (many) ways that women have powered the global economy from the Stone Age to the present day.

1. Creators of global money

Before electronic payments, banknotes, and silver coins, it was cloth—woven by women—that was the most popular form of currency. It was lightweight, nonperishable, and easier to judge in terms of

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