Changes

The VOC is often cited as the first company in history to sell stocks and operate based on responsibilities to stockholders, and as, perhaps, the first multi-national corporation.<ref>Matt Matsuda, ''Pacific Worlds'', Cambridge University Press (2012), 73.</ref> At its peak, the Company boasted 257 ships and 12,000 employees.<ref name=tignor>Robert Tignor, [[Benjamin Elman]], et al, ''Worlds Together, Worlds Apart'', vol B, Fourth Edition, W.W. Norton & Co (2014), 495.</ref>

The VOC is often cited as the first company in history to sell stocks and operate based on responsibilities to stockholders, and as, perhaps, the first multi-national corporation.<ref>Matt Matsuda, ''Pacific Worlds'', Cambridge University Press (2012), 73.</ref> At its peak, the Company boasted 257 ships and 12,000 employees.<ref name=tignor>Robert Tignor, [[Benjamin Elman]], et al, ''Worlds Together, Worlds Apart'', vol B, Fourth Edition, W.W. Norton & Co (2014), 495.</ref>

Though overshadowing the [[Chinese in Nagasaki|Chinese merchants in Nagasaki]] in most Western treatments of the subject, in fact the volume of trade in which Chinese in Nagasaki dealt dwarfed that of the VOC factory.<ref>[[Marius Jansen]], ''China in the Tokugawa World'', Harvard University Press (1992), 23.</ref>

Though overshadowing the [[Chinese in Nagasaki|Chinese merchants in Nagasaki]] in most Western treatments of the subject, in fact the volume of trade in which Chinese dealt dwarfed that of the entire VOC operation. This held true both in Nagasaki in particular, and throughout the region.<ref>[[Marius Jansen]], ''China in the Tokugawa World'', Harvard University Press (1992), 23-24.</ref>

==History==

==History==