November 24, 2013
Not much has changed in the world since the first corporation for domination appeared on the scene. Different year, different country, but history has yet to stop repeating itself.
A world still divided between the people and corporate power that is driven and supported by wars. "United East India Company") was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia.
It is often considered to have been the first multinational corporation in the world and it was the first company to issue stock. It was also arguably the first megacorporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies.
Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in the Asia trade. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, and netted for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods.
By contrast, the rest of Europe combined sent only 882,412 people from 1500 to 1795, and the fleet of the English (later British) East India Company, the VOC's nearest competitor, was a distant second to its total traffic with 2,690 ships and a mere one-fifth the tonnage of goods carried by the VOC.
In 1619, Jan Pieterszoon Coen was appointed Governor-General of the VOC. He saw the possibility of the VOC becoming an Asian power, both political and economic.
On 30 May 1619, Coen, backed by a force of nineteen ships, stormed Jayakarta driving out the Banten forces; and from the ashes established Batavia as the VOC headquarters. In the 1620s almost the entire native population of the Banda Islands was driven away, starved to death, or killed in an attempt to replace them with Dutch plantations.
Our colonial economy was fueled by tobacco and rum. By 1620, for example, Virginia tobacco growers were shipping 400,000 pounds of tobacco to London annually and men an women of all social classes reached for a pipe of tobacco or a pinch of snuff.
In 1640, the VOC obtained the port of Galle, Ceylon, from the Portuguese and broke the latter's monopoly of the cinnamon trade. In 1658, Gerard Pietersz. Hulft laid siege to Colombo, which was captured with the help of King Rajasinghe II of Kandy.
By 1659, the Portuguese had been expelled from the coastal regions, VOC trading posts were also established in Persia, Bengal, Malacca, Siam, Canton, Formosa (now Taiwan), as well as the Malabar and Coromandel coasts in India. In 1662, however, Koxinga expelled the Dutch from Taiwan.
In 1663, the VOC signed "Painan Treaty" with several local lords in the Painan area that were revolting against the Aceh Sultanate. The treaty resulted in VOC to build a trading post in the area and eventually monopolize the trade there, especially in gold trade.
By 1669, the VOC was the richest private company the world had ever seen, with over 150 merchant ships, 40 warships, 50,000 employees, a private army of 10,000 soldiers, and a dividend payment of 40% on the original investment.
Around 1670, two events caused the growth of VOC trade to stall. In the first place, the highly profitable trade with Japan started to decline. The Third Anglo-Dutch War temporarily interrupted VOC trade with Europe. This caused a spike in the price of pepper, which enticed the English East India Company (EIC) to aggressively enter this market in the years after 1672.
However, the writing was on the wall. Other companies, like the French East India Company and the Danish East India Company also started to make inroads on the Dutch system. the importance of these traditional commodities in the Asian-European trade was diminishing rapidly at the time.
The military outlays that the VOC needed to make to enhance its monopoly were not justified by the increased profits of this declining trade.
Despite of all this, the VOC in 1780 remained an enormous operation. Its capital in the Republic, consisting of ships and goods in inventory, totaled 28 million guilders; its capital in Asia, consisting of the liquid trading fund and goods en route to Europe, totaled 46 million guilders. Total capital, net of outstanding debt, stood at 62 million guilders.
However, then the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War intervened. British attacks in Europe and Asia reduced the VOC fleet by half; removed valuable cargo from its control; and devastated its remaining power in Asia. The direct losses of the VOC can be calculated at 43 million guilders.
Loans to keep the company operating reduced its net assets to zero.
From 1720 on, the market for sugar from Indonesia declined as the competition from cheap sugar from Brazil increased. European markets became saturated. Dozens of Chinese sugar traders went bankrupt which led to massive unemployment, which in turn led to gangs of unemployed coolies.
The Dutch military searched houses of Chinese in Batavia for weapons. When a house accidentally burnt down, military and impoverished citizens started slaughtering and pillaging the Chinese community.
This massacre of the Chinese was deemed sufficiently serious for the board of the VOC to start an official investigation into the Government of the Dutch East Indies for the first time in its history.
After the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, the VOC was a financial wreck, and after vain attempts by the provincial States of Holland and Zeeland to reorganize it, was nationalized on 1 March 1796 by the new Batavian Republic. Its charter was renewed several times, but allowed to expire on 31 December 1799.
Weighed down by corruption in the late 18th century, the Company went bankrupt and was formally dissolved in 1800, its possessions and the debt being taken over by the government of the Dutch Batavian Republic.
Most of the possessions of the former VOC were subsequently occupied by Great Britain during the Napoleonic wars, but after the new United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by the Congress of Vienna, some of these were restored to this successor state of the old Dutch Republic by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814.
The VOC had two types of shareholders: the participanten, who could be seen as non-managing partners, and the 76 bewindhebbers (later reduced to 60) who acted as managing partners.
VOC was a limited-liability company. The capital would be permanent during the lifetime of the company. As a consequence, investors that wished to liquidate their interest in the interim could only do this by selling their share to others on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
The VOC consisted of six Chambers (Kamers) in port cities: Amsterdam, Delft, Rotterdam, Enkhuizen, Middelburg and Hoorn. Delegates of these chambers convened as the Heeren XVII (the Lords Seventeen). They were selected from the bewindhebber-class of shareholders.
The six chambers raised the start-up capital of the Dutch East India Company. The minimum investment in the VOC was 3,000 guilders, which priced the Company's stock within the means of many merchants.
Among the early shareholders of the VOC, immigrants played an important role. Under the 1,143 tenderers were 39 Germans and no fewer than 301 from the Southern Netherlands (roughly present Belgium and Luxembourg, then under Habsburg rule), of whom Isaac le Maire was the largest subscriber with ƒ85,000. VOC's total capitalization was ten times that of its British rival.
The Heeren XVII (Lords Seventeen) met alternately 6 years in Amsterdam and 2 years in Middelburg. They defined the VOC's general policy and divided the tasks among the Chambers. The Chambers carried out all the necessary work, built their own ships and warehouses and traded the merchandise.
Not much has changed in the world of investors...wars for greed and death continue all in the name of the incorporated world for nothing good.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company
People in the 17th century also chewed tobacco because they believed it had medicinal benefits.
This view came from observing Native Americans who used tobacco topically to treat maladies ranging from toothaches, to rheumatism, to wounds and to even the common cold!
Alcohol was a cheap and plentiful dietary staple and served as currency. Physicians endorsed distilled spirits to strengthen the heart, ward off fever, nourish the body, cheer the soul and prolong life.
Rum was an important trade item and by the early 18th century, New England exported 600,000 barrels of rum annually. As this quantity of rum rose, prices fell and social consequences of alcohol such as public disorder, drunkenness and poverty rose. Whiskey became the American drink of choice by the late 1700s.
The VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century.
In the 19th century, opiates and cocaine were readily available as cocoa leaves or as compounds dissolved in alcohol. Due to the strict interpretation of the U.S. constitution relating to states rights, each state assumed the responsibility for dealing with its own health concerns.
These concerns included regulating medical practices and controlling the availability of drugs. Many states enacted little control over the manufacture, sale, advertising, purchase, possession or use of drugs.
There was no regulation over the interstate sale of drugs and little uniformity in enforcing of the laws that existed. The federal government focused its national health concerns on communicable diseases and the health care of government dependents.
http://www.fredonia.edu/athletics/health...apter1.htm
Knowledge is power and history will give more than one needs!
Friendship/Love/Respect for all living things...