The company witnessed huge profits from its spice monopoly during most of the 17th century.
The United East India Company, known as Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) in Dutch, was a chartered company, which was founded on 20 March 1602. It was set up by the States General of the Netherlands, and merged existing companies into the first joint-stock company across the globe. It also saw a 21-year monopoly to fulfill trade activities in Asia.
Under the company policies, the shares of VOC could be bought by any resident of the United Provinces, and then bought and sold in open-air secondary markets. It is also touted as the first multinational corporation, as it had quasi-governmental powers, from waging wars to imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, and establish colonies.
In a nutshell, the United East India Company blocked out all of its rivals in the Asia trade, and between 1602 and 1796, sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade. On 4,785 ships, the workers were used for their efforts and it saw a market of 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods. On the contrary, the rest of Europe combined sent only 882,412 people between 1500 to 1795.
The English (later British) East India Company was VOC's nearest competitor, and at the time, it was second to VOC in terms of its total traffic with 2,690 ships and the goods carried by the VOC. The VOC also enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly during the 17th century. It benefited from the Malukan spice trade and established a capital in the port city of Jayakarta by 1609. Later, its name was changed to Batavia (now Jakarta).
Over the next two centuries, VOC took over several trading bases, and paid an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years. But finally, it was weighed down by the smuggling, corruption and growing administrative costs, and it went bankrupt and was formally dissolved in 1799.
Its possessions and debt were taken over by the government of the Dutch Batavian Republic, and the former territories became the Dutch East Indies.
