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In 1602 the government of the Netherlands chartered the Dutch East India Company to expand trading opportunities in eastern Asia. For decades little Holland dominated the European spice trade with the East Indies.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: In 1602 the government of the Netherlands chartered the Dutch East India Company to expand trading opportunities in eastern Asia. For decades little Holland dominated the European spice trade with in the East Indies.

Intro: A Moment In Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Although the Portuguese were the first Europeans to grab the supremacy in spice with the Far East, the Dutch harbored ambitions in the same area. They were eager to expand trade into Asia, and the States-General of the Netherlands developed a corporate strategy to accomplish it. A quazi-governmental joint stock corporation, the Dutch East India Company was granted a trade monopoly between the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa eastward to the Straight of Magellan at the tip of South America.

The Company was actually a group of entrepreneurs owning small trading companies who combined their knowledge and resources. During the 1600s annual dividends paid an enormous annual return - between 12 and 63 percent. The company had the power to build and maintain armed forces, rule territories, wage war, free customs passage, and administer justice.

By 1700 the company had set up a network of trading posts in Africa and Asia and shrewdly pressured local rulers to do business solely with the Dutch. They suppressed competition. For instance, the company soaked nutmeg in milk of lime to try to kill the germ of the nut and prevent it from being planted elsewhere. During the pinnacle of the company's success, it had 10,000 soldiers, 40 warships, and 150 merchant ships. But by the end of the 1700s internal corruption and a market shifting from spices to new commodities - textiles from India, coffee from Java and Arabia and tea from China - had left the company behind. In 1799 the Dutch government assumed rule of the Spice Islands and maintained control until 1949.

The producer of A Moment In Time is Steve Clark. At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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