Part 2/5:
As the biggest businesses on the planet emerged, the conditions were ripe for a more reliable system of money laundering to take shape. The key stages of modern money laundering are placement (introducing dirty cash into the financial system), layering (moving the money around to obscure its origins), and integration (converting the cleaned money into legitimate assets).
It was the traders of the Dutch and British East India companies who perfected this art. These nation-sanctioned monopolies had unprecedented power, with the ability to erect forts, go to war, and sign deals with foreign rulers. This allowed their employees to engage in widespread private trading and corruption, supplementing their already substantial salaries with under-the-table deals.