The General Trade Company () was a

Dano-Norwegian Dano-Norwegian (Danish language, Danish and ) was a Koine language, koiné/mixed language that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union between the Denmark–Norway, Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway (1 ...

trading company charged with administering the realm's settlements and trade in

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. The company existed from 1747 to 1774 and managed the

government of Greenland The Naalakkersuisut or the Government of Greenland () is the chief executive body, the cabinet and the government of Greenland since the island became self-governing in 1979. As an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland is a p ...

from 1749.

History

The General Trade Company was founded on 4 September 1747. Learning from the mistakes of the earlier

Bergen Greenland Company The Bergen Greenland Company (Oswalt, Wendell H. Eskimos and Explorers'. Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1999.) or Bergen Company (''Bergenkompagniet''Culture Greenland.." Sisimiut Museum. Accessed 2 May 2012.) was a Dano-Norwegian private corporation char ...

and the relative success of

Jacob Severin Jacob Sørensen Severin (27 October 1691 – 21 March 1753) was a Danish merchant who held a trade monopoly on Greenland from 1733 to 1749. Biography He was born in Sæby, Denmark, to Søren Nielsen ( 1655–1730) and his wife Birgitte O ...

's operation on the island, the company received a full monopoly on trade around its settlements and armed ships flying the Danebrog to prevent better-armed, lower-priced, and better-quality

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

goods from bankrupting the enterprise. It focused its operations on getting seal skins and

whale oil Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. Oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train-oil, which comes from the Dutch word ''traan'' ("tear drop"). Sperm oil, a special kind of oil used in the cavities of sperm whales, ...

from the native hunters for resale in Europe.Marquardt, Ole.
Change and Continuity in Denmark's Greenland Policy
in ''The Oldenburg Monarchy: An Underestimated Empire?''. Verlag Ludwig (Kiel), 2006. The GTC received

Hans Egede Hans Poulsen Egede (31 January 1686 – 5 November 1758) was a Denmark–Norway, Danish-Norwegian Lutheran missionary priest who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a succes ...

's Godthaab; the Moravian missions

Neu-Herrnhut Old Nuuk may refer to several neighborhoods of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. The Lutheran mission was originally based on Hope Island at the head of the fjord but was moved to the mainland and christened Godthaab by the royal governor Claus P ...

and Lichtenfels; and Severin's trading stations at Christianshaab, Jakobshavn, and Frederikshaab. The General Trade Company was granted a monopoly only within a certain radius around its settlements and therefore undertook a campaign to expand the number of trading posts along the west coastThe east coast of Greenland was inaccessible throughout this period owing to

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of fresh water ice more than long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". Much of an i ...

s. as swiftly as it could profitably do so: Claushavn in 1752, Fiskenæsset in 1754, Ritenbenck and

Egedesminde Aasiaat (), also known as Egedesminde, is a town in the Qeqertalik municipality in western Greenland, located on its namesake island in the heart of Aasiaat Archipelago at the southern end of Disko Bay. With a population of 2,980 as of 2021, it ...

and Sukkertoppen in 1755, Holsteinsborg in 1756, Umanak in 1758,

Upernavik Kanunarinaqiniiaaq (known as Upernavik) is a small town in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,064 inhabitants as of 2024, it is the twelfth-largest town in Greenland. It c ...

in 1771,

Godhavn Qeqertarsuaq (, historically known as Godhavn) is a port and town in Qeqertalik municipality, located on the south coast of Disko Island on the west coast of Greenland. Founded in 1773, the town is now home to a campus of the University of Cope ...

in 1773, and Julianehaab in 1774. The same year as the foundation of Julianehaab, 1774, the eneral Trade Companyfolded, although for reasons unrelated to the profitability of its operations in the colony. It was replaced by the Royal Greenland Trade Department (''Kongelige Grønlandske Handel'', KGH), a

state company A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...

which maintained control of the colony for the next century and a half.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Source
Defunct companies of Greenland Defunct companies of Denmark Former monopolies Chartered companies Danish companies established in 1747 Trading companies Companies disestablished in 1774 Danish overseas colonies Economic history of Denmark 1747 establishments in Denmark History of Greenland 1749 establishments in Europe 1774 disestablishments in Europe Trading companies of Denmark Trading companies established in the 18th century