1547–1619
The man credited with founding the VOC (Dutch East India Company) was Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, lawyer and Secretary of State of the province of Holland.
In January 1602, van Oldenbarneveldt called a meeting of all the business and political leaders of the major Dutch cities trading with East Asia. His aim was to bring their six companies under one umbrella.
A single company with a monopoly on trade, he argued, could pool its members' existing capital property (such as ships) and accumulated experience (mapping, navigating and discoveries), and thereby increase profits. The new company would also reduce the high failure rate of voyages to the east.
Competition over trade with the east was fierce. The Dutch would have to take on not only the Portuguese and Spanish, with whom they were at war, but also a rising English threat, the British East India Company, founded on 31 December 1600.
Van Oldenbarneveldt, a skilled lobbyist and negotiator, drafted the VOC company structure and charter. On 20 March 1602 the charter, which provided for a 21-year trading monopoly, was given assent by the Netherlands States-General.

