Apple, Alphabet, and Amazon don't hold a candle to this Historic Heavyweight..

At it's height, the Dutch East India Company was worth 78 million Dutch guilders–7.9 trillion U.S. dollars.

The peak value of the Dutch East India Company was so high, that it puts modern economies to shame.

In fact, at its height, the Dutch East India Company was worth roughly the same amount as the GDPs of modern-day Japan ($4.8T) and Germany ($3.4T) added together.

Even further, in today’s chart, we added the market caps of 20 of the world’s largest companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, ExxonMobil, Berkshire Hathaway, Tencent, and Wells Fargo. All of them combined gets us to $7.9 trillion.

At the same time, the world’s most valuable company (Apple) only makes it to 11% of the peak value of the Dutch East India Company by itself.

It's quite amazing to look at the value of these companies and the history surrounding it, while comparing it to the modern juggernauts that we know today. Any thoughts?

Article by Visual Capitalist: The Most Valuable Companies of All Time

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