The Emden Company was a Prussian

trading company Trading companies are businesses working with different kinds of products which are sold for consumer, business, or government purposes. Trading companies buy a specialized range of products, maintain a stock or a shop, and deliver products to cus ...

which was established on 24 May 1751 to trade primarily with the city of Canton in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Its full name was the Royal Prussian Asiatic Company in Emden to Canton and China (''Königlich Preußische Asiatische Compagnie in Emden nach Canton und China''), but it was generally known by the shorter name. The company was made possible by the Prussian annexation of the port of

Emden Emden () is an Independent city (Germany), independent town and seaport in Lower Saxony in the north-west of Germany and lies on the River Ems (river), Ems, close to the Germany–Netherlands border, Netherlands border. It is the main town in t ...

in 1744. This gave the Prussians a

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

port.

Frederick the Great Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...

established the company hoping to give Prussia a share of the valuable Asian trade similar to 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 ...

or the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

. There was great interest in the shares and 482 shares of 500 thaler (241,000 thaler in total) were subscribed on the day of foundation. One of the major shareholders was the banking and trading house Splitgerber & Daumin Berlin. The company had a capital of 861,000 thalers in 1752, distributed over 1,722 shares. Although the small company was very successful, never losing any of its four ships, the business was destroyed by the outbreak of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

and the occupation of

by French troops in 1757 during the Invasion of Hanover.Simms p.362 After the end of the war, Frederick dissolved the company in 1765.

References

Bibliography

Simms, Brendan. ''Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire''. Penguin Books, 2008. Suebsman, Daniel. 'Chinese porcelain shipped by the Royal Prussian Asian Company of Emden. 1753-1756', in: ''Have a Cup of Tea! Chinese Porcelain and Tea in North-West Germany'', Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum Emden, 2015. {{Chartered companies Chartered companies Companies of Prussia Emden German companies established in 1751

See also

References

Bibliography