Passage: In 1592, during the war with Spain, an English fleet had captured a large Portuguese galleon off the Azores, the Madre de Deus, loaded with 900 tons of merchandise from India and China, worth an estimated half a million pounds . This foretaste of the riches of the East galvanized interest in the region.  That same year, Dutch merchants sent Cornelis de Houtman to Lisbon, to gather as much information as he could about the Spice Islands. In 1595, merchant and explorer Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, having traveled widely in the Indian Ocean at the service of the Portuguese, published a travel report in Amsterdam, the "Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten" . The published report included vast directions on how to navigate ships between Portugal and the East Indies and to Japan. Dutch and British interest fed on new information led to a movement of commercial expansion, and the foundation of the English East India Company, in 1600, and Dutch East India Company , in 1602, allowing the entry of chartered companies in the so-called East Indies. In 1602, the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie  was founded, with the goal of sharing the costs of the exploration of the East Indies and ultimately re-establishing the spice trade, a vital source of income to the new Republic of the Seven United Provinces.
How many companies were established in 1600 and beyond? How many countries had merchandise aboard the Madre de Deus? How many countries was the merchandise from found by the English fleet? How many different areas were included in the published report on how to navigate ships? How many years after founding the English East India Company was the Dutch East India Company founded? How many years apart were the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company founded? How many years passed between the capture of the Madre de Deus and the founding of the English East India Company? How many years passed between the founding of the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company? What effect did the travel report have on the Dutch? What was Cornelis de Houtman's job? Which companies were founded in 1602? Which happened first, the capture of the Madre de Deus, or the arrival of Cornelis de Houtman in Lisbon? Which was founded first, the English East India Company, or the Dutch East India Company? Why did the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie want to re-establish the spice trade?