There is a great anecdote from the Financial devils Dictionary about Olive Oil:

"Perhaps the earliest recorded options trade, according to Aristotle, was made by Thales of Miletus (ca. 624-547 B.C.), one of the Seven Sages of Greece, who put down deposits on all nearby olive-oil presses one winter when his knowledge of astronomy purportedly told him that the next year would bring a good olive crop. Thales paid almost nothing and profited hugely when the abundant harvest created high demand for presses thus making him one of the first individual investors to make more money trading options than his brokers did. He was also one of the last."