The United East India Company (Dutch: Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) abbreviated as VOC, Dutch: [veː.oːˈseː]) and commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered trading company and the first joint-stock company in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands existing companies, it was granted a 21-year monopoly to carry out trade activities in Asia. Shares in the company could be bought by any resident of the United Provinces (Dutch Republic) and then subsequently bought and sold in open-air secondary markets (one of which became the Amsterdam Stock Exchange). The company possessed quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, strike its own coins, and establish colonies. Also, because it traded across multiple colonies and countries from both the East and the West, the VOC is sometimes considered to have been the world's first multinational corporation.