Dutch East India Company

According to Netherlands Insider, the Netherlands is the ninth richest country in the world by 2020. The GDP / per capita there is 52,304 USD, which is more than all the countries around it with an area of only 41,543 sq km, this land full of swamps once ruled different corners of the world and one of the biggest reasons behind this regime and their becoming rich is a company. Which is known as the Dutch East India Company.

In fact, if its Dutch name is directly translated into English, it will be the United East India Company. And its short form is VOC. Many adjectives can be found next to the name of this VOC. The United Nations recognized it as the Memory of the World in 2003.

At the same time, it was the world's first Publicly Traded Company and the world's first Multi-National Company. At one time the company was valued at 78 million Dutch guilders. Converting that to today's dollar is 7.9 trillion USD. This means that the value of the 20 richest companies in the world today can be summed up in this VOC.

So, in this post, you can find out the history of why the richest company of all time, was created and how or why they ruled the world for almost 200 years.

Prehistory

In the year 1568. The Netherlands was ruled by the Spanish. Due to Catholic-Protestant discrimination, high taxation, and cultural differences, the Netherlands declared independence that year. This was the beginning of the "80 Years War" in the Netherlands. War is always a matter of cost and in the lowlands on the coast, most of the cost of the Netherlands has always been borne by the fishermen and merchants by sea. We know that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade spices and other expensive goods with the Indian subcontinent. Where the Dutch used to run their business as a middle man and distributor.

Why are people from the Netherlands called dutch?

Wait! Let's take a breath. People from Spain are called Spanish, from France are called French & from Britain British. Then why people of the Netherlands are known as Dutch rather than Netherish or Netherlandish.

Let's know the answer first. If something strange on a map of the world or anywhere is found which wasn't supposed to be there, only one nation can cause this They are British And as always, they didn't disappoint us in the troubles of the Dutch and the Netherlands the language of the Netherlands and Germany are derived from the same language family "Germanic" And many of us may know that the Germans call their country Deutschland All the people who spoke Germanic languages seemed the same, to the British. That's why they address the people of this whole area as DUTCH Which originally comes from Deutschland.

From the very beginning, the British used to refer to the Dutch as people living in both Netherlands and Germany. But over time, the German nation developed a distinct identity to the world On the other hand people of the Netherlands, remain Dutch. Well, let's not go off-topic. I was discussing the Dutch who are working as distributors.

How VOC was formed

The Portuguese brought various spices and cloths from the Indian subcontinent and its environs And the Dutch bought them from Lisbon and sold them all over Europe. This is how the economy of the Netherlands was run but in 1580, the Portuguese Crown merged with the Spanish Crown through a Personal Union. As a result, the Dutch business was closed in Lisbon and along with the Spaniards, the Portuguese also joined the opposite party in their war. At that time the only way for them was to trade on their own in the Indian subcontinent and other Spice islands.

The Dutch Republic sees this not only as a trade but also as a tactic to occupy the Spanish and Portuguese Overseas Territories. Meanwhile, in 1584, the Spanish, the main enemy of the Dutch, became embroiled in a war with the British. After that many Dutch merchants, such as Jan Huyghen van Linschoten and Cornelis de Houtman, found the Portuguese's secret route to the spice trade.

In 1595, the first Dutch fleet sailed on purpose for the Indian subcontinent, led by Fredrick de Houtman. They arrived at Banten and Bali Island in Indonesia. Although their clash with the Portuguese caused some damage in Banten, they were able to take enough pepper & some other spices from Bali. The profits from which were able to fulfill the cost of their journey Over the next few years, a number of Dutch merchants continued their operations in these areas. But most of these merchants used to travel in these areas at their own expense.

As a result, there was competition among themselves. United East India Company or VOC was formed by the Dutch Republic in 1602 to eliminate this competition and maximize their profits. Under which numerous separate Dutch merchants and companies will run their expeditions together.

VOC was allowed to trade exclusively on this route and in addition, they could also build forts to run the business, and could recruit their own army. The Dutch Crown even allowed them to enter into any agreement with the local rulers.

How they operated & prospered

After a few years, the VOC realized, to increase power in all these new places & run continuous expeditions. they will need a large capital. So, they built a trading house in Amsterdam & said that all Dutch citizens can buy any amount of paper shares of the company from there.

We are now more familiar with this type of thing because of the Stock Market, but at the time it was a brand-new concept. This is how VOC became the first publicly traded company in the world & based on this concept, the stock market of the whole business was formed later.

Many rich people from the Netherlands and all over Europe bought shares in this company. Because the Europeans had known for so long that merchants benefited greatly from the spice trades on the East Indian Islands. But it was not possible for many to take part in this journey. And VOC gave them the opportunity to share this profit without taking part in the journey. And with this huge capital, VOC became more powerful.

It began to take over Portuguese territories in other parts of the East, including the Indian subcontinent. The VOC headquartered was established in Jakarta, the current capital of Indonesia. Which the Dutch identified as Batavia. From here they controlled the Spice trades in the whole area. They are no longer limited to the Spice Trade Apart from spices, cloth came from the Indian subcontinent, silver from Japan, and silk from China. All of which were short in supply in Europe. As a result of being monopolized VOCs become much richer very quickly & their number of employees grew to around 70,000. That number is too large for a company even today. It was unbelievable at that time.

As a result, their investor continued to grow and at the same time, the Netherlands becomes richer. This led to the creation of the Dutch colonial empire in 1648, winning the 80-year war with Spain. VOC also runs many more expeditions around the world Later, the officers of this company discovered a new continent. That they are named after two provinces of the Netherlands: New Holland and New Zealand. Although New Holland later turned Australia, the name New Zealand is still unchanged.

The dark side

Listening to VOC's success story, it may seem that there is no better & probably no other successful company in the world. But it had a Massive dark side. I said at the beginning that the Dutch Republic gave VOC a monopoly, for 21 years Which was later extended further.

But in addition to this, the company was also given clearance for Slave Trading and Colonization According to some sources, VOC has sold more than 50,000 people from Africa as their slaves Or taken to work in various Dutch colonies around the world. Apart from this, there are countless examples of exploitation in the colonies & mistreatment of their own employees in various ways.

The Batavia massacre of 1740 is the first to be mentioned. Where the company's troops killed about 10,000 ethnic Chinese. It was also quite common at that time for them to torture people in order to show power in any area. But no persecution lasts forever. Nor any ruler can oppress people forever.

After 1750, the influence of a new company and colonial power continued to grow in the Indian subcontinent The British East India Company. The Dutch often fought with the British to increase their influence in these areas. In these wars, the VOC was helped by a lot of money from the Dutch Republic.

How VOC collapsed

But in the "Fourth Anglo-Dutch War" of 1780, VOC lost miserably to East India Company. This defeat plunged VOC and the Netherlands into a major economic crisis. As a result, people were losing faith in William 5th, the head of the Dutch Republic.

Influenced by the French Revolution of 1789 In 1795, the Dutch stadtholder William was overthrown by the Batavian Revolution. A few years later, the French directly controlled the Netherlands. In the midst of such political instability, Uniter East India Company announced bankruptcy in 1799. And this is the end of the journey of the richest company in the world.