ABSTRACT
However logical, indeed inevitable, the comparison, it is not at all easy to compare Dutch and English expansion in the Arabian seas. 1 Superficially the two great monopoly Companies, VOC and EIC, had a great deal in common. Both were chartered joint-stock Companies, independent organizations to which certain extra-territorial rights had been allotted. Hence, no other institutions interfered in their affairs, such as the navy or other companies that benefited from their trade; the board of directors of each was responsible to the shareholders and not to the minister of finance. All of this contrasted markedly with the Compagnie des Indes.
