Abstract
A forward contract is an agreement between two parties who specify today the terms (price, underlying asset, quantity, etc.) of an exchange that is to take place at a known future date. Forward contracts can be traced to Greek and Roman times, and may have occurred earlier still; they have been widely traded in Europe (and subsequently elsewhere) since the Middle Ages.
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Oosterlinck, K. (2018). History of Forward Contracts (Historical Evidence for Forward Contracts). In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2974
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2974
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