The forgotten story of the three titans larger than the magnificeent seven

The Dutch Eastern India Company: the Empire of spices. Therefore, global trading – Forgotten story three titans larger

Founded in 1602, the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) was the first real multinational in forgotten story three titans larger history. In addition, Benefiting from a government charter. Moreover, it had exorbitant powers: lifting armies, mudging currency, concluding treaties, creating colonies and even triggering wars. However, With nearly a million Europeans sent to Asia on nearly 5. Meanwhile, 000 ships, it built a commercial empire which dominated the trade of spices, textiles and porcelain.

Its peak, in 1637, coincided with the famous We were there. However, While the price of a extremely rare bulb could exceed ten years of a craftsman. Furthermore, the VOC saw its capitalization fly up to 78 million guilders, or more than 10,000 billion dollars. Nevertheless, A dizzying figure, which publishes almost modest modern valuations. Therefore, This prosperity was due to its commercial monopolies as much as the speculative greed of persuaded investors as the wealth of Asia. Therefore, the promises of an exotic nature would never know an end.

But the voc was not only an economic actor: it shaped the structures of modern capitalism. Furthermore, The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, where its shares were exchanged, was one of the first organized markets of financial securities. Therefore, The company paid regular dividends, sometimes 40% of the initial investment, and opened the way to mass capitalism. However. behind the splendor of Asian counters and cargoes of pepper, hid an empire of implacable brutality: monopolies imposed by force, massacres, slavery and chronic corruption ended up undermining its reputation before its dissolution in 1799.

The Mississippi Company: John Law’s financial utopia – Forgotten story three titans larger

If the voc was a giant built on tangible trade, the company of the Mississippi arranged on a promise: that of transforming the immense territories of Louisiana into Eldorado. Founded in 1684. then reorganized in 1717 by the Scottish financier John Law, it benefited from the monopoly of French forgotten story three titans larger trade with North America. The popular imagination already saw gold mines streaming in the boxes of the crown. Reality was infinitely more modest: unsanitary marshes and a still largely unexplored territory.

Law, then master of finance of the kingdom, orchestra a vast operation of communication and monetary creation. The General Bank, ancestor of the Royal Bank, flooded the paper money market, stimulating a frenzy of share purchases. Between 1719 and in the summer of 1720, the course went from 500 to 15,000 pounds, propelling the valuation of the company to 8.35 trillions of current dollars. Rue Quincampoix. in Paris, became the epicenter of frantic speculation, where aristocrats, bourgeois and simple curious people exchanged titles and fortunes.

But the bubble was only an illusion. As soon as the doubts about the real wealth of Louisiana pierced, confidence collapsed. In a few months, the action fell to 500 pounds. Law, forgotten story three titans larger discredited, fled. The Mississippi company, a brilliant symbol of the “madness of the crowds”, was liquidated in 1721. If it survived a few decades in other forms. in particular operating trade with Asia and Africa, its legend remains that of a financial mirage that has become an resounding fiasco.

The South Sea Company: British trade illusion with Spanish America

In 1711, London created the South Sea Company to manage and restructure a colossal part of British public debt. In return. the company received a commercial privilege: the monopoly of trafficking in African slaves to Spanish America (the famous Seat). But the reality of trade was very thin, the Spaniards jealously supervising their colonies. The company made less profits by trading than by financial manipulation.

In 1720, by a mixture of mirobal promises, initiate operations and political corruption, the course of action flew away. From forgotten story three titans larger 100 pounds in January, he climbed up to 1,000 pounds in August, proposing his valuation to the equivalent of 5.52 trillions of dollars. The frenzy was such that it gave birth to an anthology of absurd bubbles. certain companies entering the stock market without any other project than to raise money on the credulity of the public. The famous caricature of time summarized this madness: “A society to achieve an extraordinary matter of importance … which no one should know what it consists”.

The collapse was brutal. In the fall of 1720. the action fell below its initial price, ruining thousands of investors, including big names in aristocracy and science, such as Isaac Newton, which would have lost a considerable sum. A parliamentary committee launched a network of scams, bribes and speculation. Several ministers were fallen. and Robert Walpole, future Prime Minister, had to orchestrate a rescue operation to forgotten story three titans larger avoid the collapse of the British financial system. The South Sea Company survived. but deprived of any real ambition, being reduced to a technical role in public debt management.

Source : Visual Capitalist

Bubble, speculation and collective memory

These three companies illustrate how much finance, from its modern emergence, feeds on hope, excess and credulity. Tulipomania in the Netherlands. Louisiana fever in France and the bubble of southern seas in England share a common mechanics: the exaltation of infinite perspectives, quickly followed by the abyss of disillusionment. All three also reveal the way in which the public authorities are engaged in with companies. sometimes by encouraging, sometimes by saving projects with flicker foundations.

The stories of these episodes have fueled an abundant literature. Charles Mackay. in his famous work of 1841 forgotten story three titans larger on collective illusions, popularized the idea that these bubbles were paradigmatic examples of the madness of crowds. Modern historiography nuance: Tulipomania, for example, would have been less devastating than it was imagined for a long time. But the imaginary, he retained excesses, ruins and speculative madness.

The mirror of the present

Faced with these titans of the past, the Magnificent Seven seem almost wise. Nvidia and her $ 4.2 trillion, Microsoft and its 3.8 trillions or Apple at 3.15 trillions have not yet reached the summits of the Voc or the Mississippi company. However. the dynamics are comparable: an unprecedented concentration of wealth and power, carried by a collective faith in the endless growth of technology. But unlike yesterday’s companies. these giants rely on tangible innovations, global markets and diversified business models which offer them much superior resilience.