Danish West India Company
The Danish West India Company , later West India Guinea Company (Danish Vestindisk kompagni , later Vestindisk Guineisk kompagni ), was a Danish trading company . It was created for trade with the Danish colonies on the so-called Gold Coast (now Ghana ) and in the Danish West Indies ( Saint Thomas , Saint John and Saint Croix , now the American Virgin Islands ).
prehistory
On March 28, 1659, the Glückstadt African Company - a front organization - was founded by Heinrich Carloff , the Amsterdamers Jan de Swaan and Isaac Coymans , Vincent Klingenberg and Jacob del Boe. On May 20, King Friedrich III confirmed. in Copenhagen signed the contract and awarded an Octroi for 25 years . Friedrichsburg Fortress, today part of Cape Coast ( Ghana ), became its main and most prestigious trading center. “On April 16 th, the Danish possessions fell into the hands of the Dutch West India Company through treason and thus the Glückstadt Company was actually deprived of its documents when it was founded.” The Danish government tried to move France and England against the Dutch West India Company. At the end of 1663 Robert Holmes came to the rescue. In spite of this, the Glückstadt Company could not hold out and was accepted into the Danish West India Company in 1671.
Origin and development
It was founded on March 11, 1671 as the "West India Company" and renamed on August 30, 1680 as the "West India-Guinese Company" (Det Vestindisk-Guineiske kompagni) . On August 24, 1754 the Danish government announced that the company should be converted into Rentekammeret Vestindisk-guineisk renteskriverkontor on November 28, 1754 . From 1760 it was known as Vestindisk-guineiske rente- og generaltoldkammer .
This led to the brief establishment of the Det Guineiske kompagni by royal decree of March 18, 1765 to maintain trade with the Danish colony on the Gold Coast. In November Fort Christiansborg and Fort Fredensborg came into their possession for 20 years, but the company never regained the trade monopoly that the former West India Company had. The trade remained open to all Danish, Norwegian , Schleswig and Holstein companies.
In the mid-1770s, the company ran into such severe financial problems that it was disbanded on November 22, 1776. As early as August / September 1775, the Danish government had regained control of the forts.
See also
credentials
- ↑ The Danish African Company in Glückstadt, Wilhelm Johann Müller and “The African Landscapes Fetu” Schmitz-Verlag.
- ↑ M.-G. Schmitz: The Danish African Compagnie in Glückstadt, Wilhelm Johann Müller and “The African Landscapes Fetu” , p. 41 ff. ISBN 978-3-938098-66-0 .