Danish Asiatic Company

Danish Asiatic Company (Danish: Asiatisk Kompagni) was a Danish trading company established in 1730 to revive Danish-Norwegian trade on the Danish East Indies and China following the closure of the Danish East India Company.[1] It was granted a 40-year monopoly on Danish trade on Asia in 1732 and taken over by the Danish government in 1772. It was headquartered at Asiatisk Plads in Copenhagen. Its former premises are now used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

History

The Danish East India Company was dissolved in 1729. Some of Copenhagen's leading merchants responded to its dissolution by creating two trading societies, one for the Indian trade and another one for the new and promising China trade. On 20 April 1730, the two societies were merged to form the Danish Asiatic Company. The reformed interim company opened trade with Qing China at Canton. The first expedition went badly, with Den gyldne Løve lost with its cargo of silver off Ballyheigue, Ireland, on the outbound journey. Local landowners held the silver at their estate and pursued a salvage claim, but a gang of locals overpowered the Danish guard and made off with the hoard, causing a diplomatic row between Denmark-Norway and Great Britain.[2] The Cron Printz Christian returned from the company's first successful expedition to Canton in 1732.

With the royal licence conferred in 1732, the new company was granted a 40-year monopoly on all Danish trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. Before 1750, it sent 27 ships; 22 survived the journey to return to Copenhagen.[2] In 1772, the company lost its monopoly and in 1779, Danish India became a crown colony.

Management

Fleet

Details of some of these armed trading ships, often built by the Royal Danish dockyards as "handelskib, chinafarer", can be found at the Royal Danish Naval Museum website[4] Two have a history record at Skibregister.[5]

• Cron Printz Christian (acquired from the DEIC in 1732)
• Slesvig (acquired from the navy in 1732)
• Grev Laurvig (acquired from the DEIC in 1732)
• Vendela (acquired from the DEIC in 1732)
• Fridericus Quartus (acquired from the DEIC in 1732)

Further reading

• Aa. Rasch and P. P. Sveistrup: Asiatisk Kompagni i den florissante Periode 1772-1792 (published by Institutet for Historie og Samfundsøkonomi). Copenhagen . 1948. 347 pages.
• Glamann, Kristof: Studie iAsiatisk Kompagnis økonomiskehistorie, 1732—1772,

External links

• Literature
• Ship protocols
• At the Altar of Capitalism – Calvinist merchants in the Danish Asiatic Company in the 18th century
• Ships
• DAC ships
• Source (PDF)
• Theodor Emil Ludvigsen's memoirs