Lucien Gillard, La Banque d’Amsterdam et le Florin européen

The Bank of Amsterdam or Wisselbank, celebrated in its day, has had mixed fortunes in the historic and economic literature. Held up on the one hand as a central factor in the creation of the Dutch Republic's economic miracle, the Wisselbank is also generally seen as an archaic institution. The bank neither gave credit nor issued notes, which is thought to have prevented it from evolving into a true central bank such as the Bank of England, itself modelled on the Wisselbank, became during the ..

The Formative Years of the Modern Corporation: The Dutch East India Company VOC, 1602-1623

With their legal personhood, permanent capital with transferable shares, separation of ownership and management, and limited liability for both shareholders and managers, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and subsequently the English East India Company (EIC) are generally considered a major institutional breakthrough. Our analysis of the business operations and notably the financial policy of the VOC during the company’s first two decades in existence shows that its c

Dutch Corporate Finance, 1602-1850

Early Modern Dutch corporate finance had two notable features, a remarkable ease of raising large amounts of capital and a flexible legal framework. Having pioneered new corporate forms with two intercontinental tradi

An Admiralty for Asia: Isaac le Maire and conflicting conceptions about the corporate governance of the VOC

The Dutch East India Company or VOC in 1602 showed many characteristics of modern corporations, including limited liability, freely transferable shares, and well-defined managerial functions. However, we challenge the notion of the VOC as the precursor of modern corporations to argue that the company was a hybrid, combining elements from traditional partnerships with a governance structure modeled on existing public-private partnerships. The company’s charter r