VOC

The VOC, the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or Dutch East India Company, was chartered by the States General of the Netherlands in 1602 with a monopoly on trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and quasi-sovereign powers. Issuing tradeable shares to the public, it is often called the first true multinational corporation, and it built a maritime empire centered on Batavia that dominated the Asian spice trade for much of the seventeenth century. Its many wrecks are key archaeological evidence of long-distance trade.