4 ms·

The headline and article specify “U.S.”, but isn’t this true for any company in the world throughout history? Honest question.

• papaf 6y ago
  Its impressive but colonialism pays better: https://www.businessinsider.de/international/how-todays-tech-giants-compare-to-massive-companies-of-empires-past-2017-12/?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.de/international/how-todays-tech...
• joshuaissac 6y ago
  Adjusted for inflation, the Dutch East India Company had a peak market capitalisation of $7.9t. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/most-valuable-companies-all-time/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/most-valuable-companies-all...
  • mistersquid 6y ago
    Thank you for this deconfirming (denying?) example! The Dutch East India Company and, as another commenter mentioned, colonialism give much food for thought.
    • lkbm 6y ago
      "Refuting" works best here. It's mind-boggling to really look at the size and power of colonial trading companies. I've been meaning to re-try reading the Baroque Cycle -- started once, but gave up a ways in.
  • zeroonetwothree 6y ago
    Though prices were much less efficient then so this has much larger error bars. Plus our inflation estimates that far back are very rough.
  • em500 6y ago
    Only according to fantasy inflation adjustments, see my earlier comment on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19622046 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19622046
    • sudosysgen 6y ago
      How much do you think just the land that the Dutch East India company owned would be worth? (Hint: multiple trillion dollars)
• hnra 6y ago
  Depends on if you correct for inflation.
• viro 6y ago
  the Dutch East India Company was worth $7.9 trillion in modern dollars