The Company of the Occident (French: Compagnie de l'Occident) was a French Crown corporation that existed from 1664 to 1667. Its purpose was to exploit the resources of the French colonies and compete with the powerful Dutch and English companies.
Louis XIV had ambitions to develop his new colony of New France. This was seen as a way of funding these efforts. Spearheaded by Minister of FinanceJean-Baptiste Colbert, the letters patent creating the Compagnie de l'Occident were issued in May 1664. All property rights in French possessions in North and South America, and also the west coast of Africa, were vested in the company.
The company was shut down in 1674.
A Compagnie d'Occident was founded en 1718 by French Banker Antoine Crozat after the Compagnie de la Louisiane's bankruptcy.
The Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx (1567–1647) and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the Dutch West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over Dutch participation in the Atlantic slave trade, Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America.
Saint Lucia was inhabited by the Arawak and Kalinago Caribs before European contact in the early 16th century. It was colonized by the British and French in the 17th century and was the subject of several possession changes until 1814, when it was ceded to the British by France for the final time. In 1958, St. Lucia joined the short-lived semi-autonomous West Indies Federation. Saint Lucia was an associated state of the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1979 and then gained full independence on February 22, 1979.
The French East India Company was a colonial commercial enterprise, founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English and Dutch trading companies in the East Indies.
The term French West Indies or French Antilles refers to the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean:
Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy was a French aristocrat, statesman, and military leader. He was the seigneur of Tracy-le-Val and Tracy-le-Mont (Picardy).
The Mississippi Company was a corporation holding a business monopoly in French colonies in North America and the West Indies. In 1717, the Mississippi Company received a royal grant with exclusive trading rights for 25 years. The rise and fall of the company is connected with the activities of the Scottish financier and economist John Law who was then the Controller General of Finances of France. When the speculation in French financial circles, and the land development in the region became frenzied and detached from economic reality, the Mississippi bubble became one of the earliest examples of an economic bubble.
Compagnie d'Occident may refer to:
The Company of One Hundred Associates, or Company of New France, was a French trading and colonization company chartered in 1627 to capitalize on the North American fur trade and to expand French colonies there. The company was granted a monopoly to manage the fur trade in the colonies of New France, which were at that time centered on the Saint Lawrence River valley and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. In return, the company was supposed to settle French Catholics in New France. The Company of One Hundred Associates was dissolved by King Louis XIV, who incorporated New France into a province in 1663.
The Ostend Company, officially the General Company Established in the Austrian Netherlands for Commerce and Navigation in the Indies was a chartered trading company in the Austrian Netherlands in the Holy Roman Empire which was established in 1722 to trade with the East and West Indies. It took its name from the Flemish port city of Ostend.
A chartered company is an association with investors or shareholders that is incorporated and granted rights by royal charter for the purpose of trade, exploration, and/or colonization.
The Company of the American Islands was a French chartered company that in 1635 took over the administration of the French portion Saint-Christophe island from Compagnie de Saint-Christophe which was the only French settlement in the Caribbean at that time, and was mandated to actively colonise other islands. The islands settled for France under the direction of the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique before it was dissolved in 1651 were:
The Brabant Company, also known as the New Company was a precursor of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
The Compagnie de Chine was a French trading company established in 1660 by the Catholic society Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, in order to dispatch missionaries to Asia. The company was modelled on the Dutch East India Company.
The Compagnie de Saint-Christophe was a company created and chartered by French adventurers to exploit the island of Saint-Christophe, the present-day Saint Kitts and Nevis. In 1625, a French adventurer, Pierre Bélain sieur d'Esnambuc, landed on Saint-Christophe with a band of adventurers and some slaves. Returning to France, in 1626 he applied for and received a charter from Cardinal Richelieu to create the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe. Richelieu was a major stockholder in the company, contributing some 10,000 livres out of the company's capital stock of 45,000 livres. The company was not very successful. In 1635 Richelieu directed his councilor François Fouquet to reorganize the company under the new name Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique and with a charge to colonize Sainte-Christophe, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
The Noordsche Compagnie was a Dutch cartel in the whaling trade, founded by several cities in the Netherlands in 1614 and operating until 1642. Soon after its founding, it became entangled in territorial conflicts with England, Denmark, France, and other groups within the Netherlands.
The Compagnie du Sénégal was a 17th-century French chartered company that administered the territories of Saint-Louis and Gorée island as part of French Senegal.
Events from the year 1664 in France
The Compagnie de la France équinoxiale, or Compagnie de l'establissement des colonies françoises dans les terres fermes de l'Amerique, was a French enterprise formed in 1651 to colonize equatorial South America. The enterprise soon failed. In 1663 it was relaunched, but the next year was merged into a general company for all French possessions in the Americas. The colony of Cayenne, the nucleus of French Guiana, was eventually secured in 1674.
The Company of Habitants, was a fur-trading company chartered in 1645 in the French Colony of Canada to succeed the Company of One Hundred Associates.
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