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Next: 20 Mar 2027

Founding of the Dutch East India Company

On 20 March 1602, the VOC was chartered, becoming the world's first major joint-stock company and a master of the clove and nutmeg trade.

Flag of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) on the replica of the East Indiaman Amsterdam in Amsterdam.
Photo: McKarri, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Spices for Founding of the Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company, the VOC, received its charter on 20 March 1602 and soon took control of the clove trade of the Moluccas and the nutmeg and mace of the Banda Islands, often by force. It gave the investors shares, which could be traded, an early form of the stock market. Its monopoly of spices lasted for about a century and a half until the French smuggled seedlings out to Mauritius.

The spices

Also part of it, and being written: Mace (Sold alongside nutmeg.).

About this page

Written by the EveryMasala desk with AI assistance. Background: "Dutch East India Company" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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