The Dutch East India Company

The United East India Company - the VOC and known worldwide as the Dutch East India Company - is still a household word in the Netherlands. The Company, sometimes called the first multinational in the world, played a significant part in our history. It had a monopoly for the Dutch, trading in a territory that covered more or less half the globe. This area reached from Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to the west coast of America and comprised not only the east coast of Africa but also the whole of Asia and Oceania