On my own, I have concluded that the origins of the modern world of commerce date back to Amsterdam in the 1600’s.
Holland was the first modern democracy, founded in the early 1580s. It was a genuine Republic. The model for the United States two centuries later.
Holland became the center of the entire explosion of the rational world that included both the Descartes rationality as well as the scientific use of evidence to explore the empirical world.
Holland pioneered the modern financial instruments including bond markets, stock markets, joint stock companies, global insurance and the first salaried tax collectors (as opposed to the corrupt commission tax collectors everywhere else).
In 1688 the Dutch army invaded England and installed William and Mary as King and Queen. The entire Dutch commercial revolution was brought to England. As England became a global dominant force it spread the commercial world and the most powerful elements of Dutch commerce to every corner of the planet.
I am indebted to Paul Johnson in his History of the Jews for pointing out that nearly every innovation in commerce, including the bearer bond, was invented and introduced by the Jewish community in Amsterdam. I didn't know that. My main source previous to that had been Jonathan Israel. Johnson is a very reliable historian and when he gives the Jews credit for that creative Big Bang to commerce I will have to take his word.
My paternal family comes from Holland in that era, having been driven there by the Spanish expulsion. I am not giving myself a pat on the back because I had nothing to do with any of it. But I do consider myself a contributor to the ongoing understanding of the importance and future of commerce.