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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.
Cronprintz Christian seen on the front page from the ship journal from its 1730-31 voyage to China
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.
During the Napoleonic Wars, in 1801 and again in 1807, the Royal Navy attacked Copenhagen. As a consequence of the last attack (in which most of the Danish navy was captured), Denmark (one of few Western European countries not occupied by Napoleon), ceded the island of Heligoland (part of the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp) to Britain. In the east, when news of Anglo-Danish hostilities reached India, British colonial authorities immediately impounded seven Danish merchantmen in the Hoogli on 28 January 1808.[3] Denmark sold its remaining colonies in mainland India to Britain in 1845, and the Danish Gold Coast to the British in 1850.
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]
Royal Danish Naval Museum website for Database > Avancerede > Set Skibstype to "Handelsskib" and Datering to appropriate dates> Søg (This works only if the language is set to Danish)
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