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The Dutch East India Company, or ''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' (VOC, "United East India Company"), was a joint-stock company formed in [[1602]] which held a monopoly on Dutch colonial and mercantile activities in the Far East. The VOC maintained major bases of operations in [[Batavia]] (today, Jakarta), Fort Zeelandia (on [[Taiwan]]), and on the man-made island of [[Dejima]] in [[Nagasaki]] Harbor. Following the imposition of [[maritime restrictions]] in the 1630s, the Dutch were the only Europeans with whom Japan traded or otherwise interacted, for the duration of the [[Edo period]] (until the 'opening' of the country in the [[Bakumatsu period|1850s]]).

The Dutch East India Company, or ''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' (VOC, "United East India Company"), was a joint-stock company formed in [[1602]] which held a monopoly on Dutch colonial and mercantile activities in the Far East. The VOC maintained major bases of operations in [[Batavia]] (today, Jakarta), Fort Zeelandia (on [[Taiwan]]), and on the man-made island of [[Dejima]] in [[Nagasaki]] Harbor. Following the imposition of [[maritime restrictions]] in the 1630s, the Dutch were the only Europeans with whom Japan traded or otherwise interacted, for the duration of the [[Edo period]] (until the 'opening' of the country in the [[Bakumatsu period|1850s]]).

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> Importantly, however, unlike more modern corporations, the VOC enjoyed certain key powers normally reserved for states, and thus itself functioned as a state power in important respects. These included: the power to engage in diplomatic negotiations with foreign courts/governments on behalf of the States-General of the Netherlands; the power to build fortresses and to appoint governors and establish structures of government - in essence, the power to claim territory, and to defend and administer that territory as a colony; and the power to maintain and employ military force.<ref>Adam Clulow, ''The Company and the Shogun: The Dutch Encounter with Tokugawa Japan'', Columbia University Press (2014), 12-13.</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>

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> Nevertheless, 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==