My understanding is that those trading companies were effectively the tools with which those countries conducted foreign relations in those regions. I know at l

My understanding is that those trading companies were effectively the tools with which those countries conducted foreign relations in those regions. I know at least the leader of the VOC was directly government appointed. Could be wrong though, I haven't done much reading on them. >Once you reach a certain size and scale, is there really even a difference between government and enterprise - except that the voters control one and shareholders the other? Voter control of countries over time and by country has varied from none to tenuous and I think shareholder control of enterprise might be the same. I think the bigger distinction is use of physical force/violence. A government is the collective with a near monopoly on force within a region. So the thing that makes it scarier when they get access to new tools of oppression is the exact thing that makes them what they are.