 For a century after organized futures exchanges were founded in the mid-19th century, all futures trading was solely based on agricultural commodities.But after the end of the gold-backed fixed-exchange rate system in 1971, contracts based on foreign currencies began to be traded.After the deregulation of interest rates by the Bank of England and then the US Federal Reserve in the late 1970s, futures contracts based on various bonds and interest rates began to be traded.