17th Century Original Antique Dutch Spanish Netherlands Golden Age Nautical Oil Painting

Antique 17th Century Dutch - Spanish Netherlands Golden Age nautical/historical oil painting of a merchant ship. The subject is a coat of arms in the upper left with a crest on a shield that is a symbol of the Dutch Spanish Netherlands, with a large merchant ship that is flying the flags of the Dutch East India Company, (VOC), (a chartered trading company that operated between 1602 and 1799). The Dutch East India Company was created to merge six small Dutch East India companies and end the competition in the spice trade with Asia. The Dutch East India Company, known as the VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie), was founded by charter in 1602 and was the world's first multinational corporation. Initially, the VOC aimed to profit from the East Asian spice trade, which was already dominated by the Portuguese. In the 16th century, the Portuguese had established a vast trading network with settlements in Sri Lanka, India, and China, and the Dutch initially purchased spices from Portugues