Did you know that the Dutch were some of the first who came up with stocks? They were also known for their gigantic fleet, their ships, their colonies, and so much more. The 17th century was a golden age, a golden century for the Dutch, who discovered how to go to the new world in Asia, America, and other continents to transport spices, minerals, and other materials.
The Dutch East India Company, officially the United East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie; VOC), was a megacorporation created in the early 17th century by a government-directed merger of many competing Dutch trade services.
You might think that Amazon or Google is big, but the VOC is still thought to be the world's biggest corporation in documented history. It was established on March 20th, 1602, as a chartered business to trade with Mughal India in the early contemporary period, from which it imported 50% of fabrics and 80% of silks, mostly from the Bengal Subah area. In addition, when the Dutch federal government rewarded it a 21-year monopoly on the Dutch spice trade, the business traded with Indianized Southeast Asian nations.
Find out more about this by going through this book.