The dutch east india company was founded in 16 o two. But there had been a period of seven years when there were different east india companies within the dutch republic. At this time, as there was a war going on, the portuguese couldn't completely do without these wealthy merchants. So they started looking for other partners, like germans and italian merchants. The english were at war with the spanish and e portuguese. And that meant thatere was a lot of English privateering going on. They were not able to import more pepper either. So the price of pepper was going up.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC, known in English as the Dutch East India Company. The VOC dominated the spice trade between Asia and Europe for two hundred years, with the British East India Company a distant second. At its peak, the VOC had a virtual monopoly on nutmeg, mace, cloves and cinnamon, displacing the Portuguese and excluding the British, and were the only European traders allowed access to Japan.
With
Anne Goldgar
Reader in Early Modern European History at King's College London
Chris Nierstrasz
Lecturer in Global History at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, formerly at the University of Warwick
And
Helen Paul
Lecturer in Economics and Economic History at the University of Southampton
Producer: Simon Tillotson.