The Dutch East India Company is widely regarded as the first company to issue publicly traded shares.
Founded in 1602, the company is commonly known by its Dutch initials, VOC. It raised capital from many investors and issued shares that could be transferred, creating an early organized market in company ownership. Amsterdam became a major center for trading these securities.
The VOC operated with a government charter covering trade and colonial activities in Asia. Its financing structure helped establish practices associated with modern joint-stock corporations and stock exchanges.
The 1637 tulip-market collapse is often called a stock-market crash in popular accounts, but tulip bulbs were commodities rather than company shares. The VOC therefore provides a useful historical distinction: early public equity markets involved corporate ownership, while the tulip episode involved speculative trading in a different asset.