View source for Compagnie van Verre

{{Short description|Forerunner of Dutch East India Company}}
{{Use Oxford spelling |date=February 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Unreferenced|date=June 2019|bot=noref (GreenC bot)}}
[[File:Jan_Huygen_van_Linschoten_Itinerario.jpg|thumb|Itinerario, voyage ofte schipvaert, naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien inhoudende een corte beschryvinghe der selver landen ende zee-custen met daarin ook de Beschryvinghe van de gantsche custe van Guinea en het Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten.]]

The {{lang |nl |'''Compagnie van Verre'''}} ({{lit |long-distance company}}) was one of the forerunner companies that were later merged (united) into the [[Dutch East India Company]].

==History==
It was set up in 1594 by nine citizens of [[Amsterdam]], to break [[Portugal]]'s [[monopoly]] on the [[Black pepper|pepper]] trade.  To do this, it sent an expedition of three heavily armed ships and a pinnace under the leadership of [[Cornelis de Houtman]], with orders to break into the trade.  (Cornelis' brother [[Frederik de Houtman|Frederik]] also worked for the company.)

On 2 April 1595 the ships set off from [[Texel]], with 248 officers and men on board. The expedition (which became known as the {{lang |nl |Eerste schipvaart}}) followed the routes described by [[Jan Huygen van Linschoten]] after he had made the journey in the pay of the Portuguese.  On 6 June 1596 the ships arrived at [[Bantam (city)|Bantam]], the most important pepper port on [[Java]].  During the return trip, on 11 January 1597, ''Amsterdam'' was badly damaged and had to be left behind at the island of [[Bawean]]. 

On 14 August 1597 the expedition arrived back in Amsterdam with only 87 survivors.  The voyage was not a success commercially, but it proved that not only the Portuguese had the potential to trade in pepper.

In 1598 the {{lang |nl |Compagnie van Verre}} merged with the {{lang |nl |[[Nieuwe Compagnie]]}} and in 1597 with the ''[[Oude Compagnie]]''.  The resulting company then merged with the {{lang |nl |[[Nieuwe Brabantsche Compagnie]]}} in 1601 to form the {{lang |nl |[[Verenigde Amsterdamse Compagnie]]}}, which in turn merged with many other companies (including the {{lang |nl |[[Verenigde Zeeuwse Compagnie]]}}) in 1602 into the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC), retaining a room in the VOC's chambers in Amsterdam.

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last1=Durand |first1=Frédéric |title=Trois siècles dans l'île du teck. Les politiques forestières aux Indes néerlandaises (1602-1942) |journal=Publications de la Société française d'histoire des outre-mers |date=1993 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=251–305 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/sfhom_1768-7144_1993_ant_13_1_1029 |access-date=5 January 2025}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140407074620/http://databases.tanap.net/ead/html/1.04.01/index.html?N10101 Inventaris van de archieven van de Compagnieën op Oost-Indië, 1594-1603 Compagnieën op Oost-Indië], Nationaal Archief [['s-Gravenhage]]
* Dillen, J.G. van (1958): ''Het oudste aandeelhoudersregister van de Kamer Amsterdam der Oost-Indische Compagnie''. Uitgegeven met steun van de [[Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij]] N.V. te Amsterdam.

{{Economic history of the Netherlands}}
{{Chartered companies}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Compagnie Van Verre}}
[[Category:16th century in Amsterdam]]
[[Category:History of the Dutch East India Company]]
[[Category:1594 establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:1598 disestablishments in Europe]]
[[Category:1598 disestablishments]]
[[Category:16th-century mergers and acquisitions]]
[[Category:Pepper trade]]
[[Category:Companies of the Dutch Republic]]