SocietyEurope
The Dutch East India Company
The world's first listed company — with the right to wage war
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The model of tradeable shares and limited liability is the foundation of all modern capitalism. It also provided an instrument for violence without political accountability: the massacre on the Banda Islands in 1621 was carried out to secure a monopoly on nutmeg. Amsterdam became Europe's financial centre, and the tulip crash of 1637 was the world's first documented speculative bubble.
For children
The VOC was the first company in which anyone could buy shares, and the first stock exchange was created to trade them. It had its own army, its own ships and the right to declare war — a business behaving like a state.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org