The Danish East India Company () refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian

chartered companies A chartered company is an association with investors or shareholders that is incorporated and granted rights (often exclusive rights) by royal charter (or similar instrument of government) for the purpose of trade, exploration, or colonizatio ...

. The first company operated between 1616 and 1650. The second company existed between 1670 and 1729, however, in 1730 it was re-founded as the Asiatic Company ().

First company

The first Danish East India Company was chartered in 1616 under

King Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is the longest in Scandinavian history. A member of the H ...

and focused on trade with

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The first expedition, under Admiral Gjedde, took two years to reach Ceylon, losing more than half their crew. The island had been claimed by

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

by the time they arrived but on 10May 1620, a treaty was concluded with the

Kingdom of Kandy The Kingdom of Kandy was a monarchy on the Sri Lanka, island of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in the late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century. Initially a client kingdom ...

and the foundation laid of a settlement at

Trincomalee Trincomalee (; , ; , ), historically known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee District and major resort port city of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Located on the east coast o ...

on the island's east coast. They occupied the colossal Koneswaram temple in May 1620 to begin fortification of the peninsula before being expelled by the Portuguese. After landing on the Indian mainland, a treaty was concluded with the ruler of the Tanjore Kingdom,

Raghunatha Nayak Raghunatha Nayak was the most powerful king of the Thanjavur Nayak Dynasty. He was the third ruler of Thanjavur, southern India, from the Nayak dynasty. He belongs to Balija caste. He ruled from 1600 to 1634 and is noted for the attainments of T ...

, who gave the Danes possession of the town of

Tranquebar Tharangambadi (), formerly Tranquebar (, ), is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kaveri River. It wa ...

, and permission to trade in the kingdom by treaty of 19November 1620. In Tranquebar they established Dansborg and installed Captain

Roland Crappé Roland Crappé or Roelant Crappé (; 13 March 1644) was a Dutch colonial official serving the Dutch and Danish East India Company. He became director general of the Ceylonese department of the Danish East India Company in 1618 and became command ...

as the first governor ('' opperhoved'') of

Danish India Danish India () was the name given to the forts and Factory (trading post), factories of Denmark (Denmark–Norway before 1814) in the Indian subcontinent, forming part of the Danish overseas colonies. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions ...

.''Foreningen Trankebar''.
Artikel om en tur fra Chennai til Trankebar
". The treaty was renewed on 30July 1621, and afterwards renewed and confirmed on the 10May 1676, by

Shivaji Shivaji I (Shivaji Shahaji Bhonsale, ; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680) was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle dynasty. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the Sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the ...

the founder of the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

. During their heyday, the Danish East India Company and

Swedish East India Company The Swedish East India Company (; SOIC) was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1731 for the purpose of conducting trade with India, China and the Far East. The venture was inspired by the success of the Dutch East India Company and the British Ea ...

imported more tea than the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, smuggling 90% of it into

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where it could be sold at a huge profit. Between 1624-36, Danish trade extended to

Surat Surat (Gujarati Language, Gujarati: ) is a city in the western Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. The word Surat directly translates to ''face'' in Urdu, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of t ...

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

, and

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, with

factories A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

Masulipatam Machilipatnam (), also known as Masulipatnam and Bandar (), is a city in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporation and the administrative headquarters of Krishna district. It is also the mandal headqua ...

, Surat,

Balasore Balasore, also known as Baleswar, is a city in the state of Odisha, about from the state capital Bhubaneswar and from Kolkata, in eastern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Balasore district and the largest city as well as heal ...

and at Java, but subsequent European wars in which Denmark participated ruined the Company, and trade in India ceased entirely between 1643–69, during which time all previous acquisitions were lost except Tranquebar, which held out until aid from Denmark arrived in 1669.

Second company, 16701729

In 1670, a second Danish East India Company was established- The first board of directors consisted of then-retired admiral

Cort Adeler Cort Sivertsen Adeler (16 December 16225 November 1675), known in Denmark as Coort Sifvertsen Adelaer, in the Netherlands as Koert Sievertsen Adelaer and in Italy as Curzio Suffrido Adelborst, was the name of honour given to Kurt Sivertsen, a No ...

, vice president of ''

Kommercekollegiet Kommercekollegiet (The Board of Trade or The Trade Authority), also Kommercekollegium, was a central executive agency for commercial, marine and industrial affairs under the absolute monarchy of Denmark. It functioned with variations in scope and u ...

'' Jens Juel, Admiralty Councillor Paul von Klingeberg, Supreme Court justice

Thomas Fincke Thomas Fincke (6 January 1561 – 24 April 1656) was a Danish mathematician and physicist, and a professor at the University of Copenhagen for more than 60 years. Biography Thomas Jacobsen Fincke was born in Flensburg in Schleswig. Fincke was ...

, Supreme Court justice Peder Pedersøn Lerche and stamped-paper manager Albert Heintz. Back in 1668, the naval ship HDMS ''Færø'' had already been sent to Tranquebar. In 1670, Dansborg was ceded to the company. In 1674, Sivert Adeler was installed as the new governor of Danish India. In 1682, he was replaced by Axel Juel. The company found itself unable to finance any expeditions between 1721 and 1725. The result was that private expeditions were tolerated in return for the payment of a fee to the company. It too was dissolved in 1729.

Ships

* ''Kiøbenhavn'' and ''Christian'' (1618–1621, part of the Gjedde expedition that founded Dansborg at

)The Trials and Travels of Willem Leyel: An Account of the Danish East India Company in Tranquebar, 1639-48 * ''Christianshavn'' (8 November 1639, Willem Leyel left

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

for

as commander of this ship) * ''Flyvende Ulv'' (Departure from

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

1682 with ''Axel Juhl'', who was appointed governor of

later the same year. Departure from

1685 with ''Wollf Heinrich v. Calnein'', governor of

1687) * '' Cron Printz Christian'' (''Cron Printzen'') and ''Den gyldne Løve'' (1730–31, the Tønder expedition that opened trade with China - Den gyldne Løve was shipwrecked in Ireland) * ''Elephant(en)'' (1747–1750) The ship was lost on 15 August

1750 Various sources, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, use the year 1750 as a baseline year for the end of the pre-industrial era. 1750 is commemorated as the year that started the Industrial Revolution, although the under ...

in "Mosele Bay", near the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

. There were 35 survivors; they were rescued by ''Onwerkirk'' (). ''Elephant'' was on a voyage from

. * ''Grev Moltke'' (1760, first

Moravian missionaries The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation o ...

) * ''Nicobar'' Sunk 1783 with load of Swedish Plate Money. *Disco (1778 ship), frigate built for the Danish navy and named for

Disko Island Disko Island (, ) is a large island in Baffin Bay, off the west coast of Greenland. It has an area of ,''Hussar'', purchased 1783. * Holsten (I), renamed from ''Det Store Bælt'', declared unseaworthy and condemned at Mauritius in 1807 * Holsten (II) purchased in 1806 from the French at Mauritius and renamed to replace Holsten (I). Seized by the British (

HMS Modeste (1793) HMS ''Modeste'' was a 36-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had previously been a ship of the French Navy under the name ''Modeste''. Launched in France in 1786, she served during the first actions of the French Revolutionary Wars u ...

HMS Terpsichore (1785) HMS ''Terpsichore'' was a 32-gun fifth-rate sailing frigate, frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built during the last years of the American War of Independence, but did not see action until the French Revolutionary Wars. She served during th ...

and HMS Dasher) on the Hooghly in January 1808.London Gazett
Issue 16982 Page 219
dated 7 February 1815 Six other Danish ships were seized at the same time

References

External links

Article in Danish

* ttp://www.worldstatesmen.org/India.htm#Danish%20India WorldStatesmen – India {{Authority control Chartered companies Danish India Trading companies Colonial Indian companies 1616 establishments in Denmark Companies established in 1616 Defunct companies of Denmark 1620s in Danish India 1630s in Danish India 1640s in Danish India

First company

Second company, 16701729

Ships

See also

References

External links