It can be argued that financial engineering is what enabled their trading operations to begin with. Long distance voyage was an extremely risky venture and only

It can be argued that financial engineering is what enabled their trading operations to begin with. Long distance voyage was an extremely risky venture and only a ruling king/queen had money and risk appetite to finance it. The joint stock corporation enabled spreading of that risk across thousands of investors and East India Company was one of the first joint stock corporation. What's more one could sell their equity holdings in exchange for cash so one wouldn't have to wait for years before getting return on investment. We tend to forget the financial engine along with changes to contractual laws to only focus on daring voyages, military etc.,. But of course all of that had to be financed.