In 1595, a syndicate of nine wealthy amsterdam merchants sent its first fleet of ships east with the aim of building a lucrative business from the direct import of expensive Asian spices. No sooner had this trip demonstrated the commercial potential of such a venture than others began jumping on the bandwagon until nearly 20 Dutch unions competed to import nutmeg, mace and cloves from the Moluccas (also known as spice islands) into the Indonesian archipelago. Fearing that excessive domestic competition would reduce profits, the Dutch government decided in 1602 to merge these groups into a single chartered company, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (literally “United East India Company”). In the first half of the eighteenth century, the shogunate introduced a new set of trade rules out of fear that the nation`s wealth would run out. In 1715, he imposed a quota on Dutch and Chinese ships calling at Nagasaki, and in 1730 he began restricting copper exports. As a result, the number of merchant ships entering and leaving Nagasaki decreased, and foreign trade through this port began to decline. At the same time, however, a new trade network for China`s growing consumer economy in maritime Asia was taking shape. During the 16th century, the Portuguese Empire controlled the European spice trade and used Lisbon to distribute goods across the continent. Their fleet deliberately sailed through the Dutch Republic, restricting trade between the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. Threatened by this embargo, the Dutch decided to command their own fleet to undermine the Portuguese. Their first expedition began in 1595 and successfully returned from Indonesia with a large amount of spices. The Dutch fleet grew exponentially over the next three years and eventually led to the founding of the East India Company. Although this innovation changed capitalism forever, there were ways in which the VOC could not transform, leading to its demise.

The company`s capital has remained virtually the same throughout its 200-year existence, remaining at about 6.4 million guilders (about $2.3 million). In 1609, the English captain and explorer Henry Hudson was hired by VOC emigrants who led the VOC in Amsterdam.[298] to find a northeast passage to Asia that crossed Scandinavia and Russia. It was dumped by Arctic ice on its second attempt, so it sailed west in search of a Northwest Passage instead of returning home. He eventually explored the waters off the east coast of North America aboard the Vlieboot Halve Maen. Its first landfall was in Newfoundland and the second in Cape Cod. Japanese copper, which had a high degree of purity, remained in high demand in China for coins and decorative objects, and the VOC spared no effort to continue securing and exporting it. The VOC also managed to maintain its intra-Asian trade in Coromandel chintz for most of the eighteenth century, but not without difficulty. The ratio remained at two until the 1730s, rising to about four in the 1760s, then increasing dramatically to about 18 in the 1780s, eventually leading the company to bankruptcy and leading to its nationalization and demise. The capital raising in Rotterdam did not go smoothly. A considerable part comes from the inhabitants of Dordrecht.

Although it did not raise as much capital as Amsterdam or Middelburg-Zeeland, Enkhuizen had the largest contribution to VOC`s share capital. Among the top 358 shareholders, many small business owners took the risk. The minimum investment in the VOC was 3,000 guilders, which valued the company`s shares with the funds of many traders. [113] Historically, the company has been more of an exemplary corporate state[j] than a purely for-profit enterprise. Originally a government-backed military-commercial enterprise, the VOC was the war idea of the leading Dutch republican statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and the Estates General. Since its foundation in 1602, the company has been not only a commercial enterprise, but also an instrument of war in the revolutionary world war of the young Dutch Republic against the powerful Spanish Empire and the Iberian Union (1579-1648). In 1619, the company forcibly established a central position in the Javanese city of Jayakarta and changed its name to Batavia (now Jakarta). Over the next two centuries, the company acquired additional ports as commercial bases and protected its interests by seizing the surrounding territory. [52] To secure its supply, the company established positions in many countries and became one of the first pioneers of foreign direct investment. [k] In its foreign colonies, the VOC possessed quasi-state powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts,[56] negotiate treaties, mint its own coins, and establish settlements. [57] With the growing importance of positions abroad, the company is often considered the first truly transnational company in the world.

[l] [58] Together with the Dutch West India Company (WIC/GWIC), the VOC was considered the international arm of the Dutch Republic and a symbolic power of the Dutch Empire. To advance its trade routes, VOC-funded exploratory voyages, led by Willem Janszoon (Duyfken), Henry Hudson (Halve Maen) and Abel Tasman, revealed land masses largely unknown to the Western world. In the Golden Age of Dutch Cartography (ca. . . .