The Dutch national archive holds ninety-three kilometers of documents.

Evidence

The bulk of the archival documents cited in this book come from the Algemeen Rijksarchief (now the Nationaal Archief) at Prins Willem- Alexanderhof in The Hague. This repository is the largest in the Netherlands, with ninety-three kilometers of documents in their holdings. Established in 1802 as the Rijksarchief and opened to the public in 1918, colonial matters make up only a part of a vast collection of maps; family archives; private papers of personages of national importance; archives of government bodies (like the States-General); and religious organizations. It houses the extensive collection of the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; VOC) that exercised sovereignty on the Dutch state’s behalf from the beginning of the seventeenth century and had an official monopoly on all Dutch trade in a broad region until the company went bankrupt in 1799. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 82

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the VOC as an entity exercising state sovereignty with a trade monopoly until 1799 bankruptcy.