The Dutch East India Company, or VOC, was created by merging several competing trading firms, with a charter from the Dutch States General giving it a monopoly on trade with Asia. It is often regarded as the world's first multinational corporation and the first to issue shares that were traded on a stock exchange, in Amsterdam. The company set up its Asian headquarters at Batavia, now Jakarta, built fortified trading posts, and dominated the spice trade, especially in cloves, nutmeg and pepper. Its methods included war and violent coercion in the Banda Islands. Corruption, debt and competition from the British led to its decline, and it was nationalised and dissolved in the 1790s.
Before and after
- from 31 December 1600 to 1 June 1874Founding of East India Company
- 1601Construction of Jerónimos Monastery
- 27 September 1601Birth of Louis XIII of France
- 24 October 1601Death of Tycho Brahe
- from 1602 to 1799Founding of Dutch East India Company
- 1602Publication of Hamlet
- from 1603 to 1868Edo period
- 1603Birth of Abel Tasman
- from 24 March 1603 to 9 November 1867Tokugawa shogunate
More in Society, economy & sport
- 8 February 1575Founding of Leiden University
- 1583Founding of University of Edinburgh
- 5 November 1605Gunpowder Plot
- August 1619The first enslaved Africans arrive in English Virginia
- 14 November 1740Founding of University of Pennsylvania
- 25 May 1754Founding of Columbia University
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 17th century.