Companies such as the British East India Company (EIC), the Hudson Bay Company (HBC), the Dutch Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), the French Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales (CFIO) and the Danish Vestindisk Kompagni (VIK) represent the trade empires of western Europe. These National Trade Companies are powerful international organizations under loose control of their shareholder nations and care about little else than profit.