Replica of an East Indiaman of the Dutch East India Company/United East India Company (VOC). A pioneering early model of the public company and multinational corporation in its modern sense, the VOC was formed in 1602 from a government-directed consolidation/amalgamation of several competing Dutch trading companies (the so-called voorcompagnieën). It was possibly in fact the first recorded major consolidation[29][30] and is generally one of the most successful mergers (in particular amalgamations) in the history of business.[31]