The Dutch East India Company is often considered integral to the history of capitalism, if not the start of capitalism itself, and was granted a 21-year monopoly on trade by the Dutch government.

The real reason the Dutch East India Company is integral to the history of capitalism has less to do with trade and more to do with the innovative legal structure which for the first time separated the owners from the managers, and unlike all prior enterprises allowed for tradable claims on the ownership in the form of equity shares rather than an ownership governed by a partnership.

The problem with using 'capitalism' in discussions like this is that there isn't a precise definition of it. To some people it simply means private ownership of the means of production, to others in includes free trade, to others (and to my thinking, the most precise, but YMMV) its about the separation of management and ownership and tradable claims on the firm.

The Pythagoreans are often considered integral to the history of mathematics, if not the start of mathematics itself, and they murdered the guy who proved that the square root of two is irrational.

And are they not still mathematicians?

George Orwell, of 1984 fame, would approve of this comment.

Hard to say for sure, but probably correct: Orwell seemed to be a critic of totalist ideologies, certainly totalitarian communism but he also had words for unrestrained laissez-faire capitalism.

My comment was not political in nature, I was referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak