Just how powerful was the Dutch East India Company?

by [deleted]
Gamecocks91

The Dutch East India Company was massively powerful. The VOC, or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, held a monopoly on the trade of many spices and a monopoly on dutch trade between the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan. In fact, It sent more europeans to Asia than any of the other great mercantilist trading company. It even payed an (edit: averaged) 18% dividend each year for almost 200 years (1). At its height it was wildly powerful, as with the other trading companies. These companies acted more like states than like companies in many aspects. The VOC commanded a fleet of 5000 ships (1). and ten thousand troops (2) at its peak. It held land from South Africa to Indonesia and was hegemonic in Asian waters in the 17th Century . The company collapsed because of corruption and ramifications of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, which was a part of the American Revolution, although the company wouldn't be nationalized until 1796 after the occupation of the Netherlands. However the company's demise in the 18th century was primarily due to cheap sugar from Brazil supplanting Indonesian sugar, along with the loss of its Malabar factories in 1741 and Ceylon in 1796. The loss of naval supremacy in maritime Asia also greatly hurt the company, as the Anglo-Dutch wars saw the seizure of many goods inflicting major losses on the company(3). The company also was squeezed out of many markets as the Dutch lost influence over the course of the 18th century, resulting in the loss of trade in india on the Coromandel Coast and the Malabar Coast (4). Adding to its problems was the growing might of the British East India company and The French East India company. Both were backed by powerful navies and armies, and by the end of the 18th Century, most of India was under the BEIC control. Tl;DR Very Powerful

Citations

  1. Taylor, Bryan. "The Rise And Fall Of The Largest Corporation In History." Business Insider. November 6, 2013. Accessed April 20, 2015.

  2. Mostert, Tristan. "Soldiers." - VOC Warfare. 2007. Accessed April 20, 2015.

  3. "De VOCsite : Handelsposten; Coromandel." De VOCsite : Handelsposten; Coromandel. Accessed April 20, 2015.

  4. Derks, Hans (2012) History of the Opium Problem: The Assault on the East, ca. 1600-1950, Brill, Leiden

Edit: I would like to clarify that the Fourth Anglo Dutch war was a concurrent conflict caused by issues arising from the American Revolution. Also that the 18% was the average dividend on stock over its 200year history.