The Danish East India Company[1] ([2]) refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian chartered companies. 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 and focused on trade with India. 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 by the time they arrived but on 10May 1620, a treaty was concluded with the Kingdom of Kandy and the foundation laid of a settlement at Trincomalee on the island's east coast.[3] They occupied the colossal Koneswaram temple in May 1620 to begin fortification of the peninsula before being expelled by the Portuguese.[4] After landing on the Indian mainland, a treaty was concluded with the ruler of the Tanjore Kingdom, Raghunatha Nayak, who gave the Danes possession of the town of Tranquebar, and permission to trade in the kingdom by treaty of 19November 1620.[3] In Tranquebar they established Dansborg and installed Captain Roland Crappé as the first governor (opperhoved) of Danish India.[5]
Ships
- Kiøbenhavn and Christian (1618–1621, part of the Gjedde expedition that founded Dansborg at Tranquebar)[7]
- Christianshavn (8 November 1639, Willem Leyel left Denmark for Tranquebar as commander of this ship)[7]
- Flyvende Ulv (Departure from Copenhagen 1682 with Axel Juhl, who was appointed governor of Tranquebar later the same year. Departure from Copenhagen 1685 with Wollf Heinrich v. Calnein, governor of Tranquebar 1687)[8]
- 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)
See also
- Danish India
- Danish Mission College
- Tranquebar Mission
- Danish West India Company
- British East India Company
- Assada Company, English trading company, founded 1635 and ceased 1657
- Austrian East India Company, founded 1775 and ceased 1785
- Dutch East India Company, founded 1602 and ceased 1798
- French East India Company, founded 1723 and ceased 1769
- Portuguese East India Company, founded 1628 and ceased 1633
- Swedish East India Company
External links
References
- The Danish East India Company retrieved 12 April 2004^
- Ostindisk Kompagni Den Store Danske (Gyldendal), retrieved 2020-02-09^
- The Bengal and Agra Annual Guide and Gazetteer W. Rushton and Company, 1841, retrieved 13 December 2015