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Article: A fine place to be.(Dutch business)(Industry Overview)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 4, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 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 taste for trade
Dutch business is outward-looking and open to new ideas. But further liberalisation would help
EXACTLY 400 years ago, in the middle of the struggle against Spain, a group of Amsterdam merchants came together to create something entirely new: the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the United East India Company. Although it was chartered as a monopoly by the States General of the United Provinces, it was a private shareholder company that paid dividends (which rose as high as 40% a year in its mid-17th century heyday). The VOC was, in effect, the world's first multinational; and although it was wound up in 1795, its legacy lingers in two ...