The Dutch East India Company — the world's first stock and what it tells us about today

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@blockonomist | 2026-05-10 13:00:34 |

• Edited 2026-06-06 04:22:47

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## The Original

The VOC received its charter in 1602. It was the first publicly traded company. At its peak, the VOC had a market capitalization equivalent to approximately $8 trillion in today's dollars. For comparison: Apple in 2026 is worth roughly $3 trillion.

## What the VOC Actually Was

A state-sanctioned monopoly with its own army, navy, prison system, and judicial authority. It could declare war. It could negotiate treaties. It could execute people.

The VOC paid dividends of 17.5% annually for nearly 200 years. The mechanism: it extracted the wealth of the regions it controlled at gunpoint and distributed it to shareholders in Amsterdam.

## The Parallels

The early-stage crypto project that raises capital via token sale, deploys it to extract value from a user network, and distributes that value to early holders has a structural similarity to the VOC that's uncomfortable to think about.

## What Ended It

The VOC went bankrupt in 1799. Its debts were nationalized by the Dutch government. The shareholders did fine. The regions that had been extracted from did not.

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