A Dutch history student has found the oldest known share of the United East India Company (VOC), which dates back to 1606. It was found by Ruben Schalk while doing research for his bachelor thesis at the University of Utrecht.
The VOC issued the share on 9 September 1606 in Enkhuizen, a then important town north of Amsterdam. The second-oldest known VOC share was issued three weeks later, on 27 September 1606, which is now kept in Amsterdam's City Archive.
The oldest share was sold for 150 guilders to a Pieter Harmenszoon, after whose death it ended up in the municipal archive of Enkhuizen. The archive is now part of a larger regional one housed in Hoorn, where it was found by Mr Schalk.
Dividend
The share is remarkable for its clauses detailing the distribution of dividends until the year 1650--a much longer period than those fixed in other known shares. The clauses show that shareholders had no say in the management of the VOC. And they reveal that shareholders had to wait a long time before receiving any dividends.
According to the researchers involved, the document suggests that the VOC was far poorer than previously thought and its management far from smooth.
Golden Age
The VOC was the largest business corporation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is widely seen as the world's first multinational company that issued freely marketable stock. The trade in VOC shares eventually led to the creation of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the world's oldest bourse.
From 10 September on, the VOC share will be on display in the Westfries Museum in Hoorn as part of an exhibition on the VOC.
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More on the 1606 share can be found on the website http://www.worldsoldestshare.com/. In the Swedish example there is no start of the company with an issue of shares as done by the VOC, at least this seems not to be documented . It seems to me more a case of a privately founded firm with an external shareholder. You can find the text of the June 16, 1288 charter in the Svenskt Diplomatarium, online at the Riksarkivet in Stockholm, see http://fmpro.ra.se/ra/medeltid/pdf/1406.pdf. Stora Kopperberg is also interesting because normally medieval companies were founded for each separate voyage or project. Did Stora pay dividend to its medieval shareholders? They did sell shares according to the archivists of the Hudson Bay Company Archives at Winnipeg, Manitoba, see http://www2.hbc.com/hbcheritage/faq/default.asp. Stora Kopperberg is certainly one of the oldest existing companies. The Hudson Bay Company and its present incarnation is the only surviving company from the seventeenth century.
I don't think that the VOC share is even close to be the oldest.
For example Stora Enso's predecessor, Stora Kopparberg, gave shares already at 1300-century.
The share can now be seen in Stockholm state archives, or a picture in Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stora_Enso
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