The Virgin Islands were for a good two hundred years a Danish colony. The Danes settled on St. Thomas around 1670, on St. John in 1718, and on St. Croix in 1733. The Vestindisk kompagni was established March 111671 and from August 301680 became known as Det Vestindisk-Guineiske kompagni.
In the 17th and 18th centuries the company flourished on the triangle trade, trading on the gold coast for slaves that were then traded for molasses and rum in the West Indies. Until 1754 the company itself was responsible for the colony, but this changed when the Danish government 'Chamber of Revenues' took over the administration. From 1760 to 1848 the governing body was known as Vestindisk-guineiske rente- og generaltoldkammer. This lead to a brief establishment of Det Guineiske kompagni via Royal resolution of March 181765 to maintain the trade with the Danish Gold Coast colonies. In November they received both the fort Christiansborg and Fredensborg for 20 years, however the company never received trade monopoly, like the previous West India Company had. The trade remained free for all Danish, Norwegian, Schleswig and Holstein companies.
In the mid 1770's the company had so much financial trouble that it was liquidated on November 221776. In expectation of this, the Danish government had already retaken control of the granted forts from August-September 1775.
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