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Article: From rivalry to mergers; Anglo-Dutch companies.(The Anglo-Dutch business model)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 12, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A brief history of the Anglo-Dutch business model
FOUR centuries ago, within 15 months of each other, the English and the Dutch set up rival East India companies. In 1826 a British foreign minister sent his country's ambassador in The Hague a (coded) message: "In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch is offering too little and asking too much." But business is business: why compete when you can combine? The two East India companies soon found it easier to trade in separate bits of Asia.
A century ago, the countries' rival oil companies agreed, as their joint history now puts it, that they "would do better working together", and in 1907 created Royal ...