On 20 March 1602 the prime companies of Holland merged to form a large company called "Vereinigte Ostindische Compagnie (VOC) on the suggestion of the "landsadvocat" of the province of Holland Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (1547-1619) and the later General Governor Prinz Johann Moritz von Nassau (1606 - 1679). The new company received a state charter which granted it sovereign rights and this would be of great significance for its future development.
This company documents the breakthrough of the first and soon largest worldwide dominating trading company of its time. The VOC displayed the basic attributes of a modern joint-stock company and initiated future economic and financial history.

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The original paid up share capital was 6,424,588 Guilders, a huge sum at that time.
The key to success in the raising of capital was the decision taken by the owners to to open up access to a wide public and to accept shareholders as part-owners.
Thus the shares were sold rapidly, mostly at a nominal value of 3000 Guilders, and they were tradable, as any Dutchman could buy and sell them. The share price was not set by the government of the country but by an independent joint-stock corporation interested in profit.
The company shareholders (the term came into use after about 1606) had to produce the subscribed capital in four part payments and they were called up by the VOC between 1603 and 1606.