As a Dutchman, I feel violated, but your math checks out.
What I will say, is that if you were to recreate a company with a market cap equal to the GDP of the largest or 2nd largest economy in the world, just like the VOC, that company would require a market cap of 18-29 trillion USD. Just to give you an indication of the VOC's dominance in the scheme of things!
The reason your calculation gives such an underwhelming looking result is that there were so few people roaming the earth, AND without microchips and engines, the world didn't have much of an economy whatsoever. It's not that the VOC wasn't a really big deal, it was just a very very small world.
This is great. I have long hated every time I have seen that chart or similar. I have started to write a debunking several times myself but I got stuck trying to find precise accounting metrics.
As a Dutchman, I feel violated, but your math checks out.
What I will say, is that if you were to recreate a company with a market cap equal to the GDP of the largest or 2nd largest economy in the world, just like the VOC, that company would require a market cap of 18-29 trillion USD. Just to give you an indication of the VOC's dominance in the scheme of things!
The reason your calculation gives such an underwhelming looking result is that there were so few people roaming the earth, AND without microchips and engines, the world didn't have much of an economy whatsoever. It's not that the VOC wasn't a really big deal, it was just a very very small world.
I think at its peak the Netherlands controlled a third of all global trade. Pretty impressive.
This is great. I have long hated every time I have seen that chart or similar. I have started to write a debunking several times myself but I got stuck trying to find precise accounting metrics.