Careers and wages in the Dutch East India Company

Inter-continental trade brought a novel form of organizing business to early modern Europe: the multinational firm. Headquartered in Europe and operating in Asia, the success of the East India Companies depended largely on the management of overseas outposts and their corresponding labor force. Using a dataset of 115 individuals hired in Europe to work in Asia, I present the internal structure of the careers and wages of civil servants in the Dutch East India Company in the eighteenth century. There were stable career paths, fast tracks in promotions, and sizable returns to tenure. Despite the 300-year-old evidence, the VOC conforms rather well with present personnel practices and theories of internal labor markets.