Hardships of the VOC

Things are not looking as bright as they once did for the Dutch East India Company. With other European powers getting involved in the East India trade it has no longer been possible for our company to monopolize certain goods and as a result of competition prices in Europe have fallen considerably. Desperate some company officials have taken extreme measures such as torching warehouses of spices in order to keep the prices up but the long-time effects of such actions have been negligible at best.\nStill all is not lost. The company still has considerable assets, experienced captains and good contacts in the East. It is, however, clear that things cannot proceed as they have done so far. Many feel that the route to go is to take a more generalist approach to East India trade rather than trying to monopolize single commodities, which has been the Company policy so far