Netherlands [Dutch East India Company]: A small European country which is one of the wealthiest and most important economic centers of the continent. Dutch's surprising success has always been associated with a company that was arguably the biggest and most successful in history. Today, we will see how the Netherlands transformed from a marshy backwater into a global trading empire thanks to the Dutch East India Company. The Netherlands may be an economic superpower today, but in the 16th century, it was not very good.
To start things off, it was not even independent: instead, it was under the domain of the Spanish Empire. As one of the first European colonists, the Spanish Empire controlled vast territories around the world and used the money derived from wealth and trade to fund many wars of conquest and repression.
The Netherlands eventually succumbed to such a war: they inadvertently became part of the empire due to marriage and tried to remain free for the next 80 years. But the Dutch independence effort began as a major problem. You see, the Dutch were a seafarer: fishing and merchant shipping was their thing, and they had been doing it for centuries. The main goods they shipped were spices coming from the Far East, but this was before the Dutch had their colonies. Portugal then established a virtual monopoly on the spice trade, controlling all major trade routes to Asia and back. Thus, the Dutch did what they could to buy all their spices from Lisbon and then shipped them across Europe to sell them for profit. But Portugal was assimilated into the Spanish Empire in 1580 and, of course, the Spanish did the first job of closing the Lisbon to Dutch merchants.
Suddenly the main artery of the Dutch economy was cut off and there was only one thing that Dutch traders could do: they had to cater to the Far East and build their trading network.
At first, the effort was very decentralized: merchants from different Dutch cities would set up companies for solo trips. Inevitably, they would fund some ships and their sailors and they would send them off to find a new trade route to the Far East. Some missions were successful and came back with lots of spices, but most did not go very smoothly. A total of 65 ships were dispatched during the first six years of the expedition. 1 in 10 never made it back, and who came back with only a third of their average crew. To say that being a sailor in these early fleets was not a very safe job. Nevertheless, these early visits gave the Dutch the knowledge and experience to establish a more permanent trading network. But coordinating individual traders, each of whom competed with the rest, is difficult, to say the least, and with the English, Spanish, and Portuguese all trying to build their trading empires, the Dutch knew they had to band together. Have to do.
In 1602, under the patronage of the Prime Minister of Holland, various campaign companies united into a single company with enormous sovereign power. It was not named the Dutch East India Company, regardless of how we call it today. It was called the United East India Company, or VOC for short, and its creation marked a new chapter in the history of the Netherlands.
The political motivations were clear: the Dutch found a new economic engine to fight the Spanish and restore their war-torn country. The VOC was his only hope, which is why it was not only given a monopoly on trade, but also the ability to train his army, negotiate and declare war, occupy the land, and even enforce slavery. was given. But just being allowed to do all these things does not mean that if the VOC cannot do them, and the Far East will need too much capital to win.
However, the VOC found a simple solution, which would later become the cornerstone of modern capitalism. In the center of Amsterdam, the VOC built a trading house, where every Dutch citizen could go and buy the shares of the company, effectively giving VOC money in exchange for a future profit claim. VOC effectively created the world's first stock market and VOC itself became the first publicly-traded company in history. Every rich man in the Netherlands in VOC has so many beautiful and many immigrants. In total, VOC's initial public offering amounts to more than 6 million offenders, equivalent to approximately $ 110 million today. And keep in mind, this is coming from a country which is under the domination of Spain and whose economy was in the drain for a decade.
Of course, the circumstances were favorable to the Dutch: the Spanish Empire was at war with England at the time, allowing the Dutch to enter the Far East and drive out the Portuguese establishment.
Indonesia was the first victim of the VOC's colonial ambitions: the Dutch conquered modern-day Jakarta in 1611, slaughtered the locals, and built huge spice gardens on the surrounding islands. As the headquarters of the island of Java, the VOC spread throughout the Far East. His factories in India produced exquisite silks and fabrics, which VOC sent to Japan to trade for a famous and important supply of silver. VOC also received silk from China, which also produced valuable porcelain. What matters though, is that the profit margin earned by the monopoly on these trade routes was as high as 1500%, and all this money was certainly being funded in the Netherlands.
He finally won his independence in 1648, in the same way, that the VOC's profits were invested in a type of project unique to the Netherlands: the reclamation of land. You see, the Netherlands is very flat and below sea level, which is prone to flooding; But, if you build a bike and keep the water out, you can turn the marsh into a farm and that is exactly what the Dutch did with their VOC profits. Just by looking at the geography, you can tell when the VOC was running full force. In total, more than one and a half thousand ships sailed for the VOC during its two centuries of existence, and its impact is still felt today. Many former Dutch colonies, for example, still bear the scars of those persecutions. But VOCs have other interesting legacies that few are aware of.
Cape Town began in 1652 as a VOC resting place. A decade ago, a VOC trader discovered two large landmines south of the Dutch Indies. They called New Holland and New Zealand and you can guess which name is stuck and which is not. But in any case, a perfect storm destroyed the VOC at the end of the 18th century as soon as the ideal set of circumstances allowed the Dutch to become a colonial empire. To start things off, the Dutch lost a devastating war against the British in 1784 that disrupted the VOC's network in Asia. Then, a decade later, the newly-created French Republic invaded and conquered the Netherlands. With the British attack in Asia and the home invasion, the VOC had no chance and officially went into bankruptcy in 1799. Sadly, without the spice trade, the Netherlands lost its status as a global power.
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