So I can't remember exactly how, but last night I stumbled upon the wikipedia page for the Dutch East India Company and was absolutely blown away by the sheer scale of the company. I knew it was a very large company and extremely profitable, but I had no idea that it was also the first publicly traded company and established many of the features of modern corporate finance.
I suppose my question is: do any of you have recommendations for books on the history of the VOC and how it was run, as well as its impact on the development of modern business and corporate finance in the West? I'm not a historian and have more of an interest in business and finance. Thanks!
Well, I know of a couple of sources for the VOC but these are primarily associated with their Asian business ventures and not particularly focused on Europe