The Ostend Company (; ), officially the General Company Established in the Austrian Netherlands for Commerce and Navigation in the Indies () was a chartered

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 ...

in the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the acquisition by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Ras ...

(modern-day Belgium) in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

which was established in 1722 to trade with the

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. It took its name from the Flemish port city of

Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...

. For a few years it provided strong competition for the more established

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, Dutch, and French East India Companies, notably in the lucrative tea trade with

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 ...

. It established two settlements in India. Despite its profitability, the company was eventually ordered to close down in 1731 after the British government exerted diplomatic pressure on Austria, fearing the company's effects on their own traders. Its disestablishment was made a precondition for the Treaty of Vienna and for creating an alliance between the two states. The Ostend Company can be considered the first attempt by Austria to trade with the East Indies; the second being the much less successful Austrian East India Company, founded in 1775.

Background

The success of the

, Dutch, and French East India Companies led the merchants and shipowners of

in the

to want to establish direct commercial relations with the Indies. The trade from Ostend to Mocha, India, Bengal, and China started in 1715. Some private merchants from

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

and Ostend were granted charters for the East India trade by the Habsburg government of the

, which had recently gained control of the territory from Spain. Between 1715 and 1723, 34 ships sailed from Ostend to China, the Malabar or

Coromandel Coast The Coromandel Coast is a coastal region along the southeastern front of the Indian peninsula. Its delimitations are numerous, but generally admitted to be bounded by the Krishna River, Krishna river River mouth, mouth to the north, the Bay of B ...

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, or Mocha. Those expeditions were financed by different international syndicates composed of Flemish, British, Dutch, and French merchants and bankers.

Establishment

The mutual rivalry among the syndicates weighed heavily upon the profits and this resulted in the foundation of the Ostend Company, chartered by the Austrian ruler Charles VI, in December 1722. The capital of the company was fixed at 6 million

guilder Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

s, composed of 6,000

shares In financial markets, a share (sometimes referred to as stock or equity) is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation. It can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Sha ...

at 1,000 guilders each. It was mainly supplied by the moneyed inhabitants of Antwerp and Ghent. The shares were issued on the Antwerp Exchange on 11 and 12 August 1723,J. Mertens, "Oostende – Kanton – Oostende, 1719–1720", in ''Doorheen de nationale geschiedenis'' (State Archives in Belgium, Brussels, 1980), pp. 224-228. with 3,037 of the shares coming to be held by 54 major investors, mainly Antwerp merchants. The seven directors were chosen from leading figures in trade and finance: Jacques De Pret, Louis-François de Coninck and Pietro Proli, from Antwerp; Jacques Maelcamp, Paulo De Kimpe and Jacques Baut, from Ghent; and the Irish Jacobite Thomas Ray, a merchant and banker based in Ostend. While the ships sailed from Ostend, the company's offices were located in the Bourse of Antwerp. One of the leading shareholders was Leopold Philip, 4th Duke of Arenberg. The company's shares proved exceptionally profitable, providing a 15 percent return. Ostend Company Lion engraving 1724

The company also possessed two

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 ...

(trading posts), at Cabelon (modern-day Covelong) on the Coromandel Coast and Banquibazar ( Ichapore) in Bengal. Keyserlyche Indische Compagnie 1723

Between 1724 and 1732, 21 company vessels were sent out, mainly to Canton in China and to Bengal. Thanks to the rise in

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

prices, high profits were made in the China trade. Between 1719 and 1728, the Ostend Company transported 7 million pounds of tea from China (roughly half of the total amount brought to Western Europe), which would be about the same as

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 ...

during the same period.

Suspension

From the outset, the new company provoked the open hostility of the other established East India companies which feared its formidable imperial patronage and the fact that many of the new company's employees in the East were former employees of the British, Dutch or French companies, who brought with them their experience in the Eastern trade. Furthermore, in order to attract foreigners with experience, the Ostend company allowed them generous allowances in terms of cargo space for private trade, something that was anathema to the existing monopolistic companies. Despite hostile acts from its competitors, the new company was quite profitable from the start and by 1726 was able to declare a 33 percent dividend. However, in May 1727, the Emperor, under diplomatic pressure from the British and Dutch, suspended its charter for seven years and, in March 1731, the Second Treaty of Vienna ordered its final abolition. The flourishing Ostend Company had been sacrificed by Charles VI in order to secure the recognition of his daughter,

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...

, and thus his dynastic succession under the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. Between 1728 and 1731 a small number of illegal expeditions were organized under borrowed flags, but the very last ships sailing for the company were the two "permission-vessels" that left in 1732 and were a concession made in the Treaty of Vienna. The factory at Banquibazar, then under direct Imperial ownership, lingered on until well into the 1740s. The company officially ceased trading on 16 February 1734, and was wound up on 16 February 1737. Although officially disbanded, the shareholders secretly maintained the company as a vehicle for pooling investment until 1774. Many of the company's investors also became involved in the

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 ...

. In the 1770s Austria re-established a colonial trading company, based on the model of the Ostend Company, to take advantage of the ongoing war between

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

to take over a share of these countries' trade with India and China. This was the ''Société impériale asiatique de Trieste et Anvers,'' or ''Société asiatique de Trieste,'' also known as the Antwerp Company, founded in 1775 by William Bolts and Charles Proli, which was based in Ostend and Trieste and operated until 1785.

Ships

The ships used by the Ostend Company were medium-sized, with an average water displacement between 200 and 600 tonnes. Many were partly, or even completely, crewed by foreign sailors from England and elsewhere.

List of company ships

Ships operated by the Ostend Company included: * ''L'Impératrice Élisabeth'' (" The Empress Elisabeth", also known as ''Impératrice'') - a 28-gun ship, crewed by British sailors * ''Espérance'' ("Hope") - 20-gun

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

* ''Ville-de-Vienne'' (" City of Vienna") - formerly the British

East Indiaman East Indiamen were merchant ships that operated under charter or licence for European trading companies which traded with the East Indies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The term was commonly used to refer to vessels belonging to the Bri ...

''Heathcote'' * ''Maison-d'Austriche'' (" House of Austria") * ''Flandria'' ("

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

") * ''Saint-Joseph'' ("

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

") * ''Prince-Eugène'' (" Prince Eugene") * ''Aigle'' ("Eagle") - 26-gun

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

* ''Sainte-Élisabeth'' ("Saint Elisabeth")- 22-gun frigate * ''Saint-Charles'', formerly ''Saint-François-Xavier'' ("

Saint Francis Xavier Francis Xavier, SJ (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; ; ; ; ; ; 7 April 15063 December 1552), venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative o ...

") - 26-guns * ''Charles VI'' ( Emperor Charles VI) - 26-gun ship of the line * ''Paix'' ("Peace") - 28-gun frigate * ''Marquis-de-Prié'' (" Marquis of Prié") - 28-gun frigate (1727-1728 operated by Guillaume (Willem) Philips de Brouwer to China) * ''Tigre'' ("Tiger") - 28-gun frigate * ''Lion'' ("Lion") - 22-gun frigate * ''Concorde'' ("Concord") - 30-gun ship of the line * ''Keizerinne'' ("Empress") (1725-1726 operated by Guillaume (Willem) Philips de Brouwer to China)A. Staring, 1958, p. 226

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

The Ostend East-India Company
at Paulus Swaen auction and galleries {{Authority control Chartered companies Colonial history of the Habsburg monarchy Belgian colonial empire Colonial Indian companies Companies established in 1722 1731 disestablishments in the Habsburg monarchy 1731 disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire Austrian Netherlands Economy of the Holy Roman Empire Ostend 1722 establishments in the Habsburg monarchy 1722 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Former Austrian colonies Trading companies established in the 18th century Trading companies disestablished in the 18th century Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor