Replica Dutch East Indiaman at Scheepvaart Museum Amsterdam Netherlands The Dutch East India Company was established in to trade with Dutch colonies in Indonesia Malaysia China India Ceylon and South Africa It was the first multinational company and the first to issue stock By the company had ships employees and a private army of some soldiers By the end of the th century the Dutch East India Company was in financial trouble however and the British were aggressively expanding their trading operations in the Far East In it was dissolved and its remaining territories in Indonesia were awarded to the Dutch crown at the Congress of Vienna in