1597 was the bellwether year – the year of Houtman's successful return, and the spread of Linschoten's tracts. A slate of new Dutch companies (voorcompagnie) to trade with the East Indies were immediately erected by various competing merchant consortiums in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Middelburg and elsewhere – often with the help of exiled Antwerp merchants ('Brabantsche'), who had long been involved on the distribution end of the Portuguese spice trade, but expelled. At least fifteen separate Dutch expeditions to the East Indies, each involving enormous numbers of men, ships, and amounts of treasure, were sent out by the voorcompanies in 1598–1601. From this enthusiastic anarchic beginning, the Dutch trade got organized in 1601, when the Dutch government forced the voorcompagnie to fold under a single monopoly company, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC).
