The Danish East India Company was chartered in 1616 by King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway to conduct trade with India and East Asia, following the model of the earlier Dutch and English East India companies. In 1620 it established its principal Indian trading post at Tranquebar, on the Coromandel Coast, which remained a Danish possession for over two centuries and served as the base for the company's trade in textiles, spices and later tea. The original company struggled financially and was dissolved around 1650, but Danish Asian trade was revived under later chartered successors, most significantly the Asiatic Company founded in 1732, which built substantial trade with Canton and expanded Danish commercial interests in the region. Denmark eventually sold its remaining Indian trading settlements, including Tranquebar and Serampore, to the British East India Company in 1845, ending nearly two and a half centuries of Danish presence in the Indian trade.
Facts
Organization TypeDanish-Norwegian chartered trading company 1 DissolvedThis entity's own description already dates the first company's end to around 1650; the source states only the operating span (1616 to 1650), not an exact dissolution date. IndustryTrade with India and East Asia 1 Organization Type
Organization Type (category)Chartered Trading Company 1 Connections
Associated With
The Danish East India Company competed with the Dutch East India Company for the Asian trade.
The Swedish and Danish East India Companies were rival Scandinavian chartered companies trading with Asia in the eighteenth century.
In Era
Chartered 1616 by Christian IV of Denmark and Norway, within the Early Modern Period (1453 to 1789).
Related To
Chartered in 1616 following the model already set by the earlier English and Dutch East India Companies.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Danish East India Company
Wikipedialead paragraph
The first company operated between 1616 and 1650.
body text, First company section
The first Danish East India Company was chartered in 1616 under King Christian IV and focused on trade with India.
Lead section, opening sentence
The Danish East India Company (Danish: Ostindisk Kompagni) refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian chartered companies.
In Group: Chartered Trading Companies Founded from 1600 to 1799, Lead
The first company operated between 1616 and 1650.
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