The demise of the seno company started in 17 80 when there was a war, the fourth anglo dutch war. And that meant that the dutchy senior company couldn't pay off its debts any more. They were bailed out by the they were helped by the state at that moment in time. So they prolonged their existence until enteen 95, when a new war broke out. And then they were pushed over overboard, and they almost went bankrupt. But the states stepped in, almost like we have seen with the banks a couple of years ago, and took over their possessions in order to continue as a colonial empire.
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.