The Danish East India Company[1] (Danish: Ostindisk Kompagni as the first governor (opperhoved) of Danish India.[2] The treaty was renewed on 30July 1621, and afterwards renewed and confirmed on the 10May 1676, by Shivaji the founder of the Maratha Empire.[3]
During their heyday, the Danish East India Company and Swedish East India Company imported more tea than the British East India Company, smuggling 90% of it into England, where it could be sold at a huge profit. Between 1624-36, Danish trade extended to Surat, Bengal, Java, and Borneo, with factories in Masulipatam, Surat, Balasore and at Java, but subsequent European wars in which Denmark participated ruined the Company, and trade in India ceased entirely between 1643–69, during which time all previous acquisitions were lost except Tranquebar, which held out until aid from Denmark arrived in 1669.[3]
Second company, and the Asiatic Company
In 1670, a second Danish East India Company was established, before it too was dissolved in 1729. In 1730, it was refounded as the Asiatic Company and opened trade with Qing China at Canton. The first expedition went badly, with Den gyldne Løve lost with its cargo of silver off Ballyheigue, Ireland, on the outbound journey. The local landowners held the silver at their estate and pursued a salvage claim, but a gang of locals overpowered the Danish guard and made off with the hoard, causing a diplomatic row between Denmark-Norway and Britain.[4] With the royal licence conferred in 1732, the new company was granted a 40-year monopoly on all Danish trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. Up to 1750, 27 ships were sent, with 22 surviving the journey to return to Copenhagen.[4] In 1772, the company lost its monopoly and, in 1779, Danish India became a crown colony.
During the Napoleonic Wars, in 1801 and again in 1807, the British Navy attacked Copenhagen. As a consequence of the last attack, Denmark (one of few West European countries not occupied by Bonaparte) lost its entire fleet and the island of Helgoland (part of the duchy of Holstein-Gottorp) to Britain. Denmark finally sold its remaining settlements in mainland India in 1845 and the Danish Gold Coast in 1850, both to the British.
Christianshavn (8 November 1639, Willem Leyel left Denmark for Tranquebar as commander of this ship)[5]
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)[6]
Cron Printz Christian, Cron Printzen, and Den gyldne Løve (1730–31, the Tønder expedition that opened trade with China)
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