The United East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie abbr. VOC, commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world.[3][4] Established on 20 March 1602[5] by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies, it was granted a 21-year monopoly to carry out trade activities in Asia.[6] Shares in the company could be purchased by any citizen of the Dutch Republic and subsequently bought and sold in open-air secondary markets (one of which became the Amsterdam Stock Exchange).[7] The company possessed quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts,[8] negotiate treaties, strike its own coins, and establish colonies.[9] Also, because it traded across multiple colonies and countries from both the East and the West, the VOC is sometimes considered to have been the world's first multinational corporation.[10][11]