R1717th

The foreign market brought a healthy influx of wealth into Dutch economy, best exemplified through the Dutch East India Company established in 1602. As international trade expanded, people began to see the investment opportunities it presented. A group of regents in Holland created the Dutch East India Company as a joint stock company, and the regents each claimed a percentage of the profits according to the amount they had invested. Expanding to the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, and Malacca, their profit margin increased exponentially as investors, and the Dutch in general, became very wealthy and powerful from foreign trade. McKay, John P. __A History of Western Society__. 7th ed. New York City: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.