The Dutch East India Company – VOC – 17th Century

I recently read an article which compared the inflation adjusted value of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to modern mega-corporations today. The peak inflation adjusted value of VOC was calculated to be around $7 trillion USD!! Quite ridiculous… Indeed, so I wanted to analyze the price data of VOC with The Bubble Index. Thanks to the prices found by L.O. Petram here, the graphs below were produced (meaningful graphs are the 1764, 2520, 5040, and 10080 day indices).

It is noteworthy to point out that the 10,080 Day index peaked on November 13, 1648 — approximately six months after the Peace of Münster was signed. The independence of the United Netherlands from the Spanish Crown occurred at a peak in the stock price of VOC and was followed by a large correction in subsequent years.

Download PDF