Visurgis AG (Oldenburg)

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The "Visurgis" AG for shipping and shipbuilding was one of three shipping companies founded in 1856 in the then Grand Duchy of Oldenburg as a company based on shares .

founding

"Visurgis", founded in December 1856, was based in the city of Oldenburg and began operations with seven ships with a total of around 5000 register tons . Her largest ship had a cargo capacity of around 2000 tdw . The chartering of their ships and general business transactions took place in Bremen , where Bischoff & Co. acted as correspondents . In some cases, however, their ships were engaged in Chinese coastal traffic, in which German shipping companies had got hold of a considerable share after the opening of the Chinese ports and markets forced by the First Opium War and partly supplemented and partly displaced the junks trade .

The Fanny Kirchner affair

Captains lying in Chinese ports chartered their ships, mostly operated in partner shipping companies, whether German or those of other nations active there, occasionally in the so-called coolie trade for the transport of mostly forced Chinese workers to Peru or to the sugar cane plantations on the West Indies . Ships of the "Visurgis" (and the Oldenburg East India Shipping Company) were also involved. It came in the case of 1855 in Brake from the stack overflowed "Visurgis" - three-masted Fanny Kirchner December 1859 to July 1860 to a considerable reputation of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg in England.

The recruitment of coolies clearly violated Chinese laws that made leaving the country illegal and severely punished. In their business, however, the Western cool agents benefited from unequal contracts that guaranteed extraterritoriality, protected foreigners from Chinese criminal prosecution and tied the hands of the Chinese authorities for effective measures. Occasional drastic penalties against human traffickers were ineffective because they did not touch the core of the recruiting system on China's coast: the exemplary position of foreigners and the lax attitude of western governments towards the recruiting methods of coolies.

Almost all nations that traded in East Asia were involved in the inhumane pen trade. Even German ships could sometimes be chartered for cool passages, even if only very few compared to British, Portuguese or American ones. The horror news of the sinking of the US clipper Flora Temple in a typhoon in the China Sea in October 1859 caused particular horror . Over 850 Chinese coolies sank in the floods with the ship. Then the Chinese authorities tightened controls for a short time and denied some ships, including Fanny Kirchner , the Ausklarierung . Although the ship was actually only approved for 284 passengers, there were 325 Chinese on board who were to be brought to Havana . Only 35 said they wanted to emigrate voluntarily.

The Times took up the case and accused the small Grand Duchy of Oldenburg of being involved in the (quote) slave trade on a large scale . However, the British Foreign Office supported the Oldenburgers and responded by sending detailed materials that disclosed the involvement of Western powers in the pen trade. This involved extensive documentation that was submitted to the English parliament and was also intended to give the Oldenburg government a precise insight into the entire system of kidnapping and human trafficking in southern China, of which the Fanny Kirchner affair was only a part.

Representatives of the Oldenburg State Chancellery finally traveled to China in person and settled the matter on site with the authorities and with the coolies, who were paid compensation. The Oldenburg Consul in China received a warning because he knew what cargo Fanny Kirchner had on board. The Oldenburg government then informed all Oldenburg captains that they were guilty of aiding or abetting of kidnapping or deprivation of liberty and that in future such cases would be punished according to Oldenburg state laws. At the same time, a report was sent to London to limit the damage, in which the grand-ducal government informed the British government that the Oldenburg ships were strictly prohibited from engaging in the pen trade. In 1860, Oldenburg was one of the first European countries to issue a clear ban on the pen trade.

The End

In 1860, “Visurgis” AG already had 12 ships in service. However, the shipping company was not granted lasting success. It was hit three hard times in the first decade of its existence: the economic crisis from 1857 to 1859 , ship losses and finally the American Civil War , which brought emigration to the USA and thus the emigrant passages business, which is very important for the shipping company, to a virtual standstill. In 1867 she still had seven ships in service, but their total tonnage was only about 3,000 register tons, and the company was dissolved that same year.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The other two, both based in Brake , were the Oldenburgische Reedereigesellschaft with nine ships (a total of 4300 register tons ) and the Oldenburgisch-Ostindische Reederei with two ships (together 750 register tons).
  2. ↑ Jürgen Osterhammel: The transformation of the world: a story of the 19th century. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-61481-1 , pp. 246-247.
  3. ^ Stefan Hartmann: Studies on the Oldenburg sea shipping in the middle of the 19th century. In: Hansische Geschichtsblätter. Volume 94, Porta Alba Verlag, 1976, pp. 38–80 (here 59)
  4. ↑ Rolf-Harald Wippich: "... no respectable business". Oldenburg and the Chinese pen trade in the 19th century. In: Oldenburger Landesverein für Geschichte, Natur- und Heimatkunde: Oldenburger Jahrbuch. Volume 104, 2004, ISBN 3-89995-143-3 , pp. 145-162.
  5. ↑ Rolf-Harald Wippich: "... no respectable business". Oldenburg and the Chinese pen trade in the 19th century. In: Oldenburger Landesverein für Geschichte, Natur- und Heimatkunde: Oldenburger Jahrbuch. Volume 104, 2004, ISBN 3-89995-143-3 , pp. 145-162.

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