This thesis examines the entrepreneurial reasons for establishing the Ostend Company (1722-1727) in the context of socio-political developments in the aftermath of the War of the Spanish Succession...Show moreThis thesis examines the entrepreneurial reasons for establishing the Ostend Company (1722-1727) in the context of socio-political developments in the aftermath of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713). The thesis concludes that the Ostend Company could be established because: internal competition in the Southern Netherlands had to be eliminated to restore profitability of the Chinese tea trade; merchants from the Southern Netherlands could not gain trading concessions in Bengal without the institutional protection of a Company (under the Habsburg Emperor); the Habsburg administration judged that overseas trade was instrumental for the economic development of the Southern Netherlands, in turn strengthening Habsburg authority there; and the Dutch and English threat of waging war against the commercial initiatives in the Southern Netherlands turned out to be a hollow one.Show less
