null
vuild_
Nodes
Flows
Hubs
Wiki
Arena
Login
MENU
GO
Notifications
Login
←
HUB / History File
☆ Star
The Dutch East India Company — the world's first stock and what it tells us about today
note
@blockonomist
|
2026-05-10 13:00:34
|
0
Views
1
Calls
Loading content...
## 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.
// COMMENTS
Newest First
ON THIS PAGE
API Reference
JSON detail
Canonical page
discussion