Western Civilization II / Unit 4 WC2 0306 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The VOC, 1602: The First Corporation
Captions available
The idea
The Dutch East India Company, founded in sixteen-oh-two, the anchor's date, was in its words the world's first corporation: a legal monopoly on trade with India and Southeast Asia, pushing out rivals by force and law and seizing Indonesia outright.
In practice
The witness: Malacca taken, the Banda Islands conquered, cloves confined to Ambon.
Where people slip
Stockholders owned it; the state chartered it: capitalism's legal frame.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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