The Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (1602–1800) was a huge Dutch company primarily earning lots of revenue in the spice trade among other activities.
For this work they needed a lot of ships from lightly armed merchant ships to ships of the line to defend said merchants and their holdings in other countries.
Is there any detailed record about how many ships the VOC operated and owned at their peak?
On the Dutch Rijksmeuseum site I only get numbers of personnel
Following the establishment of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), two or three fleets would sail each year from the Dutch Republic to Asia. Bigger ships were built for the voyage, to carry more people and more produce. It generally took eight months to reach the East Indies. An average of seven knots (13 kilometres per hour) was considered a good speed. Along the route, the VOC set up trading posts where ships could take on provisions for the next stage. Between 1602 and 1610, 8,500 people sailed to the East. The numbers soon rose: in the 17th century an average of 4,000 people sailed to East Asia each year; and in the 18th century even more. Eastindiamen could carry hundreds of passengers.
It seems there was an explosion in the amount of people sailing for the VOC but I cannot find any sources on the amount of ships they had in their possession.
