Dutch East India Company (VOC)
F1. Maritime HistoryDefinition
Chartered 1602, the first multinational joint-stock company and dominant Asian trader of the seventeenth century.
The Dutch East India Company, the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, was chartered by the States General in 1602 with a monopoly on Asian trade and powers to wage war, coin money, and make treaties. Often called the first multinational joint-stock company with publicly traded shares, it dominated the spice trade from Batavia, ran fortified factories across Asia, and operated the largest merchant and naval fleet of the seventeenth century before debt and corruption led to its dissolution in 1799. Its wrecks are major maritime-archaeology sites.