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The VOC basically owned the entirety of trade in SEA. It's not hard to imagine a valuation of 7 trillion when they had a monopoly of an entire continent's worth
by hokumguru 8y ago
The VOC basically owned the entirety of trade in SEA. It's not hard to imagine a valuation of 7 trillion when they had a monopoly of an entire continent's worth of trade (spices!) for two centuries.
- Leary 8y agoLet's put it this way. According to Maddison, https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-database-2010 https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/relea... The entire world's GDP in 1700 was $371 Billion (1990 International Dollars). That would mean the VOC's value then was ~10x the global GDP, which I find hard to believe. Or if that doesn't convince you, consider the world population in 1700 was 700 million people. That would mean the Dutch Indies Company's value per person is $10,000!
- LolWolf 8y ago10,000! is quite a large number, to be fair. Kidding aside, I agree: I'm also quite dubious of this article's claim on the East India company being worth as much as was computed.