The Dutch East India Company ("Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie" or VOC in old Dutch), started in 1602, when the Netherlands gave a group of small trading companies a 21-year monopoly to trade in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock. The VOC had the power to start wars, make treaties, make its own money, and start new colonies.