Dutch East India 1623

Dutch East India Co.

In 1602, the Dutch government set out to monopolize the intercontinental spice trade, establishing the Dutch East India Company as an official colonial agency. The company was given massive financial backing and the legal quasi-governmental power to wage war, create overseas settlements, and uphold its own jurisprudence. For over 200 years the company represented Dutch interests in Asia and dominated European trade. The Company known as Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie in Dutch, or simply VOC, is widely considered the first multinational corporation, and the world’s largest company by any measure for most of its lifespan, eclipsing the ventures of both the British and Portuguese.

Between 1602 and 1796, the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships and netted for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods. By contrast, the rest of Europe combined sent only 882,412 people from 1500 to 1795, and the fleet of the English (later British) East India Company, the VOC's nearest competitor, was a distant second to its total traffic with 2,690 ships and a mere one-fifth the tonnage of goods carried by the VOC. The VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century.

The Company became exceptionally profitable and continued to flourish. The Dutch government allowed the company to build forts throughout south-east Asia and establish footholds across the continent. After years of conflicts with the Portuguese navy, the VOC began to surpass its main competitor, and in 1619 stormed Jakarta to establish its city-spanning headquarters, Batavia. This trading outpost gave the company a stronghold in the Pacific, allowing it to exert its influence over surrounding trade routes. This victory devastated Java, razing settlements, and killing hundreds.

For the next 50 years the company used an aggressive economic policy to sabotage its rivals, creating an intra-Asia trade system that allowed them to purchase and sell precious metals at a significantly reduced rate. The Portuguese’s influence eventually waned and was replaced by the British’s naval supremacy. The profits of colonial trade gradually fell over the next 50 years, as the spice market became oversaturated due to the new trade links formed with South America.

The Dutch continuously clashed with the British, entering two wars that devastated both sides. The second conflict took place between 1780 and 1784 and almost ruined the company, with British forces destroying half of the Dutch fleet. The numbers were never recovered and by 1799 the Dutch East India Company was completely disbanded.