One such innovation came in the field of exchange traded derivatives when farmers realized that finding buyers for the commodities had become a problem. They created a joint market called the “Chicago Board of Trade”. A few years later, this market evolved into the first ever derivatives market.

What was the original idea behind derivatives?

The Sumerians used clay tokens stored in a clay vessel, and later clay writing tablets, to represent commodities, recording delivery dates for goods being traded. These resembled futures contracts and are thought to be the first example of financial derivatives.

Who founded derivatives?

Calculus, known in its early history as infinitesimal calculus, is a mathematical discipline focused on limits, continuity, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently developed the theory of infinitesimal calculus in the later 17th century.