Danish West India Company

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The Danish West India Company (Danish: Vestindisk kompagni) or Danish West India–Guinea Company (Det Vestindisk-Guineisk kompagni) was a Dano-Norwegian chartered company that operated out of the colonies in the Danish West Indies. It is estimated that 120,000 enslaved Africans were transported on the company's ships.^[1] Founded as the Danish Africa Company (Dansk afrikanske kompagni) in 1659, it was incorporated into the Danish West India Company in 1671.

History

In March 1659, the Danish Africa Company was started in Glückstadt by the originally Finnish Hendrik Carloff; two Dutchmen, Isaac Coymans and Nicolaes Pancras; and two German merchants, Vincent Klingenberg and Jacob del Boe. Their mandate included trade with the Danish Gold Coast in present-day Ghana. In 1671 the Africa Company was incorporated in the Danish West India Company. The West India Company was organized on November 20, 1670, and formally chartered by King Christian V on March 11, 1671.^[2]

The Danes settled in

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the company flourished from the North Atlantic triangular trade routes. Slaves from the Gold Coast of Africa were traded for molasses and rum in the West Indies.

Closure and revival

The company administered the colonies until 1754, when the Danish government's "Chamber of Revenues" took control. From 1760 to 1848, the governing body was known as Vestindisk-guineiske rente- og generaltoldkammer.

The financially troubled company was liquidated on November 22, 1776. In anticipation of this, the Dano-Norwegian government took control of the granted forts from August–September 1775. Bargum had fled the country to escape his creditors in 1774.[5]

Company ships

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2012)

• Charlotte Amelie (1680s)
• Den Unge Tobias (Young Tobias, 1687)
• Røde Hane (Red Cock, 1687)
• Maria (1687)
• Pelicanen (The Pelican)
• Unity (1700s)
• Caroline (1750).^[6]
• William (1750).^[6]

Bibliography

• Jensen, Niklas Thode; Simonsen, Gunvor (2016). "Introduction: The historiography of slavery in the Danish-Norwegian West Indies, c. 1950-2016".
  doi:10.1080/03468755.2016.1210880
  .