The Compagnie van Verre (''long-distance company'') was one of the forerunner companies that were later merged (united) into the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

History

It was set up in 1594 by nine citizens of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, to break

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

on the

pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

trade. To do this, it sent an expedition of three heavily armed ships and a pinnace under the leadership of

Cornelis de Houtman Cornelis de Houtman (2 April 1565 – 1 September 1599) was a Dutch merchant seaman who commanded the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies. Although the voyage was difficult and yielded only a modest profit, Houtman showed that the Po ...

, with orders to break into the trade. (Cornelis' brother Frederik also worked for the company.) On 2 April 1595 the ships set off from

Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of Den ...

, with 248 officers and men on board. The expedition (which became known as the Eerste schipvaart) followed the routes described by

Jan Huygen van Linschoten Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563 – 8 February 1611) was a Dutch merchant, trader and historian. He travelled extensively along the East Indies regions under Portuguese influence and served as the archbishop's secretary in Goa between 1583 ...

after he had made the journey in the pay of the Portuguese. On 6 June 1596 the ships arrived at Bantam, the most important pepper port on

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

. During the return trip, on 11 January 1597, the ''Amsterdam'' was badly damaged and had to be left behind at the island of

Bawean Bawean ( id, Pulau Bawean) is an island of Indonesia located approximately north of Surabaya in the Java Sea, off the coast of Java. It is administered by Gresik Regency of East Java province. It is approximately in diameter and is circumnav ...

. 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 ''Compagnie van Verre'' merged with the '' Nieuwe Compagnie'' and in 1597 with the '' Oude Compagnie''. The resulting company then merged with the '' Nieuwe Brabantsche Compagnie'' in 1601 to form the '' Verenigde Amsterdamse Compagnie'', which in turn merged with many other companies (including the '' Verenigde Zeeuwse Compagnie'') in 1602 into the

(VOC), retaining a room in the VOC's chambers in Amsterdam. {{DEFAULTSORT:Compagnie Van Verre 16th century in Amsterdam History of the Dutch East India Company 1594 establishments in Europe 1598 disestablishments in Europe Pepper trade Companies of the Dutch Republic