This article is to shed light on the impact of the Dutch East India Company(VOC) on the evolution of the Southeast Asian economy in the early modern era. It specifically focused on the state and merchant capitalists that played an important role in the capitalist development of the time. The VOC was said to be the most advanced capitalist institution of the time. It was not only a corporate entity but also a de facto state in Asia. With its military power the VOC disarmed the role of Southeast Asian states in trade by deteriorating them into either a dependent peripheral state or a non-commercial absolute state. The VOC also limited the commercial role of the indigenous merchants. Instead, the VOC heavily relied on the Chinese to supplement its needs and to connect the local people with the Dutch. The Chinese emerged as the major merchant capitalists and the wealthy middle class in Southeast Asia ever since. The opportunity to build a constructive relationship between the state and indigenous merchant class in Southeast Asia was wasted under such circumstance. And it caused to push further the Southeast Asian economy to the periphery of the world economic system afterwards.