Brandenburg-African Company
The Brandenburg-African Company ( BAC ) from 1682, later called the “Brandenburg-African-American Company” ( BAAC ), was a Brandenburg-Prussian company whose purpose was overseas trade with West Africa and North America . She took part in the triangular trade between Europe, Africa and America at the time and traded in colonial goods and slaves . The home port was Emden , and it also had bases in West Africa (including the Groß Friedrichsburg colony ) and in the Caribbean .
The establishment under Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was closely related to the work of the Dutchman Benjamin Raule , who was in the service of Brandenburg, and the accelerated development of the Brandenburg Navy . The trading company is also considered the first German stock corporation . The Company was in 1711 by the Prussian King Frederick I dissolved.
prehistory
The European voyages of discovery in the 16th and early 17th centuries had the effect that the political horizons and ambitions of the European rulers broadened through the enlargement of the “known world”. In the outbreak of rivalry and competition between the European powers for the newly discovered territories, shipping , sea trade , the possession of war fleets and colonies played a decisive role.
Brandenburg-Prussia under Friedrich Wilhelm also claimed a new place in the concert of the great powers. The model for the Brandenburgers was the small republic of the Netherlands , which had become a dominant trading and economic power through overseas trade and a large merchant fleet. The elector planned to found an East Asian trading company as early as 1651, but found no investors. Nevertheless, the elector did not give up his colonial ambitions.
At the instigation of the Dutch merchant and ship owner Benjamin Raule , the first trade expedition to West Africa was undertaken under the Brandenburg flag in 1680/81 . The elector only made the crew of the two ships and his flag available for this enterprise; The costs and risk lay solely with Raule and his shareholders. The actual electoral mandate was to negotiate gold, ivory, grain and slaves on the coast of Guinea and to offer these "goods" for sale in Lisbon , Cádiz or "under the palm of the hand". This expedition succeeded in May 1681 in signing a trade agreement with the African tribes on the Gold Coast between Axim and the Cape of the Three Peaks . The content of the contract was that the Brandenburgers were allowed to set up an armed trading base within a year and that the Africans resident there would only sell their goods to the Brandenburgers.
history
Foundation of the company in 1682
After the return of the first expedition in August 1681, the Great Elector supported the continuation of the Africa project because of this success. On March 7, 1682 he announced with the " Edict due to the enforcement of the trading company to be set up on the coasts of Guinea " the establishment of the "trading company on the coasts of Guinea"
The company was equipped with a share capital of 50,000 Reichstalers , of which 48,000 Thalers were subscribed. The trading company, later renamed "Brandenburgisch-Afrikaans Handelscompagnie (BAC)", received the Brandenburg monopoly for trading in West Africa with pepper , ivory , gold and slaves as well as the right to set up its own bases. The elector provided the crew and equipment. In addition, the elector granted the society the right to conclude its own contracts with the local population on behalf of the elector. The company had its own jurisdiction, was allowed to maintain its own military and to wage defense wars overseas. The "BAC" was represented at the European courts by the elector. Anyone who acquired a share with a minimum face value of 200 thalers could become a partner in the company. The actual influence on the company then depends on the amount of the contribution . So you only had a vote from a face value of 1,000 thalers. All employees of the company were strictly prohibited from engaging in private overseas trade. The respective Brandenburg Elector was in charge of the company.
Relocation of the BAC from Königsberg to Emden, 1683
The previous Brandenburg fleet ports of Königsberg and Pillau were, for many reasons, unsuitable as ancestral ports for the newly founded trading company. The Baltic Sea was not navigable for four months in winter, the journey through the Kattegat was dangerous and the Öresund could be closed by Denmark at any time, even if Denmark and Brandenburg had a very good relationship.
The elector forged plans to acquire a high-sea port on the North Sea. He chose the city of Emden for this because the port there was considered to be one of the best in Europe at the time. At the time, the Princess of East Frisia was in conflict with the East Frisian estates. Taking advantage of this, the elector agreed with the estates from Emden, who were interested in weakening the princess in East Friesland . Under the pretext of an imperial order to protect the country, the elector, in agreement with Denmark, had 300 Brandenburg soldiers embark in Glückstadt on October 26, 1682 . Greetsiel Castle was taken on November 6th after the estates in Emden had approved this and the 16-man garrison surrendered by mutual agreement. Six months later, on April 22nd, 1683, the Brandenburgers were able to negotiate a trade and shipping contract with the Emden estates. From then on, Emden became the headquarters of the Brandenburg-African Company.
In another contract negotiated on August 4, 1683, it was stipulated that the Emden estates would participate in the company with 24,000 Reichstalers (returned in 1686 by the elector after complaints from the estates) and that they would share a third of the company's profits.
From BAC to BAAC (1683–1692)
In the following time, the company established itself on the western coast of what is now Ghana , the so-called Gold Coast . On January 1, 1683, the first Brandenburg base in West Africa, Fort Groß Friedrichsburg, was founded . The Groß Friedrichsburg colony of the same name consisted of an approximately 30 to 50 km long coastal strip and, in addition to the Großfriedrichsburg fortress, also consisted of Fort Dorothea and Fort Louise, founded in 1684 , and a base near Taccarary founded in 1685 , which was, however, owned by the Dutch West India Company in 1687 was conquered. In 1685 the Brandenburgers occupied the island of Arguin off the coast of today's Mauritania and restored the old Portuguese fort there. A contract was signed with Denmark that allowed the Brandenburgers to use the Caribbean island of St. Thomas . Thus the basic requirements for triangular trade were given.
The creation and maintenance of these bases resulted in high costs. In addition, the merchants involved in the company were prone to corruption and traded more for their own pockets than for the company. The rivalry with the other European trading companies repeatedly led to the confiscation of Brandenburg ships, which were only returned after lengthy negotiations. The administration of the Brandenburg Navy and the trading company were merged, which led to the fact that the separation between the fleet and trade that had been sought in 1684 was abolished. In 1692 the BAC was finally bankrupt.
Through an electoral edict of 1692, the BAC was converted into the “Brandenburg-African-American Company” ( BAAC ). In terms of the privileges it received, it was similar to its predecessor, but in terms of its organizational structure it was even closer to its model, the Dutch East India Company .
Fall and end of the BAAC (1693–1711)
Due to increasing disputes between the partners, raids by pirates on the bases and many ship losses, the company gambled away all trust in its investors. In 1700 only 11 of the once (1684) 34 ships sailed under the Brandenburg flag. So it came about that between 1699 and 1709 only a few ships were equipped by BAAC . The bases could no longer be adequately supplied. In 1711 the trading company was taken over by the state by King Friedrich I , without any resistance from the members. After thirty years, the trading company ceased to exist. For the next two decades, the new Prussian king concentrated only on the liquidation of the company's property and inventory.
Résumé
The main problem of the BAC throughout its entire period was the limited financial resources that would have been required if the company had wanted to prevail in overseas trade against its European competitors in the long term. Another factor in the failure of society was the lack of an economic infrastructure in the motherland of Brandenburg-Prussia . At the time, the country was not able to process the imported goods, nor was there a sufficient domestic market in the form of a broad wealthy class who had the financial means to purchase these products. In America, the Brandenburgers also failed to establish plantation colonies that could have continuously delivered colonial goods to the mother country. Trading with America alone, however, did not make lasting profits.
literature
- Sven Klosa: The Brandenburg-Africanische Compagnie in Emden . Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-60932-3 .
- Ulrich van der Heyden: Red eagles on Africa's coast. The Brandenburg-Prussian colony Großfriedrichsburg in West Africa. 2nd revised edition. Selignow-Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-933889-04-9 .
Web links
- Thorsten Melchers: East Frisia: Prussia's atypical province? : Prussian integration policy in the 18th century. Dissertation, University of Oldenburg, (2002), online (PDF file; 3.6 MB).
- Andrea Weindl: The Kurbrandenburgers in the “Atlantic System” (1650–1720) on the Brandenburg overseas trade of the 17th and 18th centuries. In: Christian Wentzlaff-Eggebert and Martin Traine (ed.): Working papers on Latin American research , University of Cologne, Philosophical Faculty , Center Latin America, 2001, ISSN 1616-9085, ( PDF file; 6kB ).
- Brandenburg-African trading company , Prussian Chronicle, website of RBB .
- Under the Kurbrandenburg flag , ( private website , source: Schorers Familienblatt , Verlag Schorer, Berlin, 1885, from rado jadu 2001).
- Gustav Seibt: Prussia without a special route , for the 300th anniversary of Friedrich I's coronation, an exhibition in Berlin shows Prussia as a European normal. DIE ZEIT from May 10, 2001, ( overview article online )
- Herbert Schwenk: Brandenburg-Preussens Seemachtgeüste , Edition Luisenstadt, 1999, pp. 11-17, in the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein , ( online ).
- Dagmar Girra: Rise and Fall of an Adventurer, Merchant and Shipowner Benjamin Raule (1634–1707) , Berlinische Monatsschrift , Issue 5/99, Edition Luisenstadt, 1999, pp. 60–63, ( online ).
- The Great Elector was also a slave trader, on Tagesspiegel.de .
Individual evidence
- ^ Gisela Graichen, Horst founder: German colonies . Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-550-07637-1 . , Page 28.