Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 16001900
The Dutch East India Company , or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) , was founded in 1602 in the Netherlands and is widely considered the first multinational corporation in history. It was also the first company to issue stock to the public, essentially inventing the modern stock market.
The VOC was granted a 21-year monopoly on Dutch trade in... See more
The VOC was granted a 21-year monopoly on Dutch trade in... See more
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On 31 December 1600, the last day of the first year of the new century, the ‘Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies’, a group of 218 men, received their royal charter.27 This turned out to offer far wider powers than the petitioners had perhaps expected or even hoped for.
William Dalrymple • The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
The great empires of the age—Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, India, China, and later the Ottoman and Mongol empires—competed for glory, beliefs, wealth, and power with an unprecedented level of ambition and energy that continue to amaze and enthrall us today. This period is globalization on the grandest canvas, when the participants themselves felt
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