where did the dutch east india company trade
Dutch East India Company The company was formed to profit from the Malukan spice trade, and in 1619 it forcibly established a capital in the port city of Jayakarta, changing the name to Batavia (modern-day Jakarta). Over the next two centuries the Company acquired additional ports as trading bases and safeguarded their interests by taking over surrounding territory.[23] It remained an important trading concern and paid an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years.[24] Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in international trade for almost 200 years of existence.[25][26] Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, and netted for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods. By contrast, the rest of Europe combined sent only 882,412 people from 1500 to 1795, and the fleet of the British East India Company (EIC), the VOC's nearest competitor, was a distant second to its total traffic with 2,690 ships and a mere one-fifth the tonnage of goods carried by the VOC. The VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century.[27]