Yesterday, Damen Shiprepair and Conversion in Amsterdam welcomed an iconic visitor; the replica of 18th century Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship AMSTERDAM arrived for renovation.
Work is scheduled for completion early next year, after which AMSTERDAM will return to welcome visitors at the Netherlands Maritime Museum.
The “United East India Company”, or “United East Indies Company” (also known by the abbreviation “VOC” in Dutch) was the brainchild of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the leading statesman of the Dutch Republic.
India Company (VOC), started off as a spice trader. In the same year, the VOC undertook the world’s first recorded IPO. “Going Public” enabled the company to raise the vast sum of 6.5 million guilders quickly. The VOC’s institutional innovations and business practices laid the foundations for the rise of modern-day global corporations and capital markets that now dominate the world’s economic systems.