The States-General establishes the Dutch East India Company for trade with Asia. In the course of the following century, the Company becomes the most successful commercial organisation in the world, with trading posts in Japan, the East Indies (present-day Indonesia) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The West India Company, founded in 1621 for trade in the western hemisphere, is less successful. It gains possession of part of North Americaís east coast, where Dutch settlers found the city of New Amsterdam at the mouth of the Hudson. In 1664, however, this city is lost to the British, who give it a new name - New York.
