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The modern use of the word dividend in English, as the share of the profit of a joint stock company, goes back to the early seventeenth century. The first companies paying dividends were the overseas trading companies such as the Dutch East India Company (the Vereinigte Oostindische Compagnie or VOC), which paid dividends varying between 12 and 75% a year in the seventeenth century. However, VOC shareholders did not always receive their dividends in cash; payments with VOC bonds or in kind (spices) also occurred, explaining why the shareholders were called the “pepper sacks of Amsterdam”. ^[13]

The importance of dividends naturally varies from one company to another and there are also cultural differences in attitudes to dividends from one country to another. Generally speaking, dividends are more significant for shareholders in the UK than in other parts of the world, but the sad truth is that the long-term trend for dividends has been downwards, with the most marked decline occurring in the United States. The importance of dividends is always going to be relative to other factors. For instance, at a time when low rates of interest prevail, like the beginning of the current decade, company dividends will seem comparatively attractive. By contrast, when share prices are rising steeply the attractiveness of the dividend is likely to be overshadowed. This, too, has been the state of affairs in the ten years to 2006 when dividends contributed just 8% of the total return to shareholders from their shareholdings. Changes to the tax regime of the shareholder may make it more advantageous for them to receive entitlements such as return of capital rather than dividends. However, in the UK share dividends are treated more favourably than income derived from other kinds of savings. ^[14]