Comments by "Lynott Parris" (@DenUitvreter) on "How History Works" channel.

I know the English like to pretend they were of huge importance in the 17th century, but the founding of the VOC was all about the 80-year for independence with Spain and Portugal. The English were just in the way sometimes later on but they were not out to destroy the Dutch Republic and it's religious freedom like the Spanish and Portuguese, nor could they rival the Dutch in trade. The VOC soon saw more opportunity than initially anticipated and didn't want to pay dividends but reinvest the profits in growth. That's why the stock market had to be founded so the poor shareholders could get ROI through selling their shares to rich merchants out to build generational wealth. The VOC didn't pay dividends for the first 31 years of it's existence. And what is with this 7.9 billion? Why are you regurgitating a bogus calculation by an obscure Canadian media company? The VOC didn't dominate global trade, it only had a Dutch monopoly East of the Cape and did most of it's trade within Asia, and a lot more than spices. The European trade was dominated by the independent Dutch merchants with 100 times more ships than the VOC, trading much more frequently. Even the good old herring fishery of the Dutch remained more profitable than peak VOC.
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The anglo Dutch wars were started by the British because they couldn't compete with the Dutch in the free European trade, no one could. Ironically they claim the Dutch got rich from colonialism, while for the Dutch is was just a tiny cherry on a huge cake. Still it was capitalism that made both of them rich, first the Dutch who brought it over to England.
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Not true, the VOC had the Dutch monopoly from the Cape eastwards, the WIC had the Dutch monopoly on the Atlantic. It did an expedition to find the North passage to the East-Indies for which they hired Henry Hudson. European trade wast still much, much bigger and that was dominated by the Dutch merchant fleet consisting of thousands of companies that had nothing to do with the VOC.
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Nothing ironic. The States-General already existed before the the Dutch Republic's DOI and the States as provincial parliaments without having a common assembly go back to the 13th century. The English support for the Dutch revolt was half arsed and two faced, and queen Elizabeth kicking the Dutch sea beggars out of English ports and taking back her beloved non valeur Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester where both great turning points in the Dutch war against the Spanish Empire. Lucily for the English, the Dutch had already blocked the Spanish Armada from actually invading England.
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It was still peanuts. No year in history had the VOC making more money for the Dutch Republic than the good old herring fishery. The Dutch merchant fleet in Europe was a 100 times bigger than that of the whole VOC.
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@jonathankerr4859 Another YT myth, all based on a dodgy calculation by a Canadian media company. We know it was bigger than the British East India Company, we also know that peak VOC brought in less money to the Dutch Republic than the good old herring fishery. We also know it's less than 200 merchant ships was futile compared to the enormous Dutch merchant fleet in Europe.
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@jonathankerr4859 I'm just putting it in perspective. Besides the dodgy calculations by a questionable source that is taken for a fact all over history videos on YT, the special thing about it was that it was all put in one company with a Dutch monopoly. If we decide now that all Dutch trade with Ireland would be done by a single company, that would be a huge company too. The VOC didn't compete with the tens of thousands of individual merchants because it had a monopoly East of the Cape in today's SA, and it was not competitive in the European trade because of operation costs. Bigger ships with lots of guns and bigger crew, double planked, they were specialized in one year journeys with valuable cargo, not suited for shipping wheat from Poland to Sweden at competitive prices.
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No, it wasn't. It was differently bad. The Dutch Republic already had had the first half of their Golden Age before profits from WIC or VOC came in, both started for war reasons, to protect what you take for granted now. Since you are enjoying freedom of religion, freedom of speech and print, upward social mobility and modern capitalism, citizenship in a nation state, free trade, the Dutch Golden Age was golden for you too.
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