1. Antiquity: the exchange-and-oath of early law (the Roman stipulatio, contractus — the word itself: con-trahere, to draw together);
2. The medieval era: the action-of-assumpsit's rise in England (the trespass-on-the-case becoming the promise's remedy — consideration's cradle); the canon law's fidelity-to-promise;
3. The classical codifications: Pothier and the French Code Civil 1804 (consent-obligation- cause-object: the civil-law four); the English common law's nineteenth-century consolidation (Williston's * oferta* architecture, the consideration doctrine's classical form);
4. The modern era: the will theory's decline (from the parties' freedom to the regulated contract: consumers, labour, standard forms); the UNIDROIT Principles, the CISG (the international sales' uniform law — PIL-I's trade chapter), and the European codes' renewal (the PECL family) — contract law's globalization.