Since when do brands exist?

The world existed with great civilisations much before America came in to existence.The world had many things which had a traditional value-Indian spice,Chinese silk,French wine,Scotch whisky etc etc.These are all so called brands.But Americans make things look as if they started for the first time the whole brand concept.Ans stupidly they take millions for a ride and in the process cheat the million of a billion green backs!GOT IT?

I agree with "prasanta", branding probably started with nationalities being assigned characteristics, Jews for bankers, Scotch for being thrifty, and so on. Then extended to the manufacturer's of ships perhaps, then cannon. Finally tobacco or spices from particular places.

Then once companies started advertising (tea and so on), then officially branding was on its way. Let's pretend the East India Trading Company was the first "brand", and someone can correct this.

Once again, wrong section. I don't even think Yahoo Answers is incompetent enough to false-categorize this poorly.