A thought experiment, not a rigorous extension of the calculator — nothing here feeds into or changes the Timeline, Distribution, or Margin plans. Moved to its own page since it's too niche to take up room on the main one.
Two reasons this can't be held to the same standard as the rest of the calculator
No dataset like JST exists this far back, so pre-1871 figures below are decade-resolution illustrative reconstructions anchored to documented facts and published academic averages, not annual price data. And the currencies genuinely differ — VOC returns are nominal Dutch guilders, early UK returns are nominal British pounds, neither deflated by anything, while the post-1871 lines are the same real, US-CPI-deflated data used everywhere in the main calculator. Treat the shape of the story as the point, not the third decimal place.
Growth of 100 units, each currency's own terms
Log scale. Each line starts wherever its own market begins; currencies and real/nominal basis differ by line — see legend.
1602 — VOC IPO on the Amsterdam exchange, the first tradable public share in history. No dividend paid for 7 years, prompting the world's first recorded shareholder activism campaign.
1637 — VOC market cap peaks around 78 million guilders, coinciding with tulip mania. By some inflation-adjusted estimates this remains one of the largest company valuations ever, in real terms.
1720 — The South Sea Bubble: UK share prices spike and collapse in the same year; documented losses of over 70% followed for investors who bought near the top.
1730s-1780s — VOC keeps paying double-digit dividends for decades even as it's documented to have funded them by drawing down capital and taking on debt rather than from profits — a very on-theme lesson for a FIRE calculator.
1799 — VOC is formally dissolved, insolvent, after 197 years. Its charter is not renewed; the Dutch state absorbs its debts and possessions.
1871 — Where this page rejoins the real, annual, US-CPI-deflated data used throughout the rest of the calculator.
Assumed returns by era, with sources
Decade-level nominal figures. Full reasoning and citations are in the footer.