Group
Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch, literally "United East Indies Company")
The Dutch East India Company is considered by many to be the first major and the most successful corporation in history.
The VOC is historically a military-political-economic complex rather than a pure trading company.
The company is also seen as the international arm of the Dutch Republic and the symbolic power of the Dutch Empire. Statistically, the VOC eclipses all of its rivals in international trade for almost two hundfred years of existence.
Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sends almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, and nes for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods.
By contrast, the rest of Europe combined sends only 882,412 people from 1500 to 1795, and the fleet of the English (later British) East India Company, the VOC's nearest competitor, is 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 enjoys huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the seventeenth century.
The VOC is formed to profit from the Malukan spice trade, and in 1619 it establishes a capital in the port city of Jayakarta, changing the name to Batavia (now Jakarta).
Over the next two centuries the Company acquires additional ports as trading bases and safeguards their interests by taking over surrounding territory.
It remains an important trading concern and pays an eighteen percent annual dividend for almost two hundred years.
Member Cities
- Djakarta > Jakarta Jakarta Raya Indonesia Capital
- Amboina > Ambon Maluku Indonesia Location
- Amsterdam Noord-Holland Netherlands Location
- Apia Upolu Samoa Location
- Bahía > Salvador Bahia Brazil Location
- Batavia > Jakarta Jakarta Raya Indonesia Location
- Bengkulu (Benkoelen) Bengkulu Indonesia Location
- Bergen Hordaland Norway Location
- Bruny Island Tasmania Australia Location
- Bushehr > Bushire Bushehr Iran Location
- Canton > Guangzhou Guangdong (Kwangtung) China Location
- Cape Maria van Diemen Northland New Zealand Location
- Cape Town (Kaapstad) Western Cape South Africa Location
- Chandernagore > Chandannagar West Bengal India Location
- Chinsura West Bengal India Location
- Cochin > Kochi Kerala India Location
- Collingwood Tasman New Zealand Location
- Colombo Western Sri Lanka Location
- Copenhagen > København Staden København Denmark Location
- Cornhill Banffshire United Kingdom Location
- Darwin Northern Territory Australia Location
- Easter Island > Isla de Pascua Easter Island Chile Location
- Edo > Tokyo Tokyo Japan Location
- Forestier Peninsula Tasmania Australia Location
- Fort St. David Tamil Nadu India Location
- Guilderton Western Australia Australia Location
- Hobart Tasmania Australia Location
- Hooghly River Murshidabad District West Bengal India Location
- Houtman Abrolhos (Abrolhos Islands) Western Australia Australia Location
- Jepara Jawa Tengah Indonesia Location
- Juan Fernández Islands Chile Location
- Kandy Central Sri Lanka Location
- Kolachel Tamil Nadu India Location
- Le Maire Strait Argentina Location
- Ledge Point Western Australia Australia Location
- Lisbon > Lisboa Lisboa Portugal Location
- London Middlesex United Kingdom Location
- Madura Island Jawa Timur Indonesia Location
- Malaka > Melaka > Malacca Melaka Malaysia Location
- Maningrida Northern Territory Australia Location
- Matsu Islands Fujian (Fukien) China Location
- Nagasaki Nagasaki Japan Location
- Negapatam > Nagappattinam Tamil Nadu India Location
- Nuku'alofa Tongatapu Islands Tonga Location
- Oxford Oxfordshire United Kingdom Location
- Paarl Western Cape South Africa Location
- Padang Sumatera Barat Indonesia Location
- Paris Ile-de-France France Location
- Penang > George Town Pulau Pinang Malaysia Location
- Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Thailand Location
- Pondicherry Pondicherry India Location
- Port Louis Mauritius Location
- Praia Praia Cape Verde Location
- Run Maluku Indonesia Location
- Singapore Singapore Location
- Society Islands Tahiti Island French Polynesia Location
- Sorell Tasmania Australia Location
- Stanley Falkland Islands Location
- Surakarta Jawa Tengah Indonesia Location
- Suva Vita Levu Fiji Location
- T'ai-Nan T'ai-Nan Taiwan Location
- T'ainan T'aiwan (Taiwan) China Location
- The Hague > 's-Gravenhage Zuid-Holland Netherlands Location
- Three Kings Islands Northland New Zealand Location
- Tokyo Tokyo Japan Location
- Trincomalee North Eastern Sri Lanka Location
- Tuamotus French Polynesia France Location
- Valdivia Los Lagos Chile Location
- Yogyakarta Yogyakarta Indonesia Location