Why the Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602

The Dutch East India Company — the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) — was chartered by the States General of the Dutch Republic on 20 March 1602 to merge rival Dutch spice ventures into a single firm holding a 21-year monopoly on Dutch trade in Asia.

The rivals were competing themselves into trouble. In 1598 five separate companies sent 22 ships east; in 1601 Dutch ventures launched 65, enough to overtake the Portuguese, but so much competition drove up prices at the sources in the East Indies. Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, advocate of the States General, warned delegates that Spain and the British East India Company would exploit the disunity:

“It is therefore to the interest of the commonwealth that all parties get together and place themselves under one organization.” — Johan van Oldenbarnevelt

Zeeland’s merchants held out longest, giving way on 16 March only after he hinted that further delay might be read as treason. Four days later the company existed. Its charter let it wage war, sign treaties, coin money and collect taxes — powers it went on to use in the ruthless exploitation of the peoples it came to rule.

What happened next

• 1602: The first share issue raised about 6.5 million guilders, the start of the story of how the VOC became the first company to sell shares to the public.
• 1602 onward: A board of Seventeen Gentlemen (Heeren XVII), eight of them from Holland, ran a federation of six chambers and met in each provincial capital in turn, so no province could dominate.
• 1652: The VOC sent Jan van Riebeeck to build a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope; within weeks he asked for enslaved labour, and the Cape grew into a slave-based economy.
• 1799: The company was dissolved on 31 December, almost two centuries after its charter.