The Colourful world of the VOC – National Anniversary Book VOC 1602 / 2002 –

“A scent ball, the Great Mogul, a gingall, a Japanese robe, an Alfur, clove, chintz and a wild boar: a startling collection of people, animals and things. Yet they all have to do with one Dutch business firm that was founded in 1602: the United Dutch East India Company (VOC). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was the largest trading and maritime enterprise in the world, with all Asia as its sphere of activity. There the Company was involved in shipping, trade, waging war and administration.
Over the two centuries of its existence the VOC would change forever daily life in The Netherlands and across Europe in many fields: cuisine, clothing, interior decoration, and our understanding of human society and natural history. Its influence can stil be felt even today.

To mark the 400th anniversary of the VOC in 2002, The Colourful World of the VOC is being published in cooperation with the Netherlands Maritime Museum Amsterdam, the Maritime Museum Rotterdam and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. In language clear to the layman, the book describes the great influence that the VOC had on Dutch society, and how, in the midst of indigenous and European competitors in Asia, it was able to grow into the first multinational in the world. Through a selection of breathtaking objects from the Company’s history readers themselves make a surprising voyage of discovery through the ‘colorful world of the VOC’.”