DENMARK. 



653 



statistics. Altona, Fiensburgh, Kiel, Husum, Christiansfeld, and 

 Tcendern, have the principal share of the commerce of 

 these provinces. There is held annually, in the month 

 of January, a great fair in the town of Kiel, during 

 which time this place is the rendezvous of all that is 

 rich and valuable in the two duchies. The canal of 

 Kiel, which unites, as was mentioned above, the Baltic 

 with the river Eyder, which falls into the German Sea, 

 forms the great inland navigation of Denmark. This 

 important work was begun in 1777, and finished in 

 1784, and cost nearly 800,000 pounds sterling. Its 

 length is about 22 British miles and a half. Its breadth 

 is 100 feet at the top, and 54 at the bottom, and its 

 smallest depth 10. It admits vessels of 120 tons bur- 

 den. The vessels from Kiel must be drawn by horses as 

 far as Rendsburgh. From Rendsburgh to the sea, they 

 use sails. The whole length of the navigation from Kiel 

 to Tonningen, or from the Baltic to the ocean, is about 

 105 miles. Since the opening of this navigation, the 

 passage round Jutland, always long, and often danger- 

 ous, has been mostly abandoned. This canal has great- 

 ly advanced the trade and prosperity of Sleswick and 

 Holstein, and facilitated the intercourse between all 

 the Danish states. It has also been the means of form- 

 ing new and lucrative connections with foreigners, who, 

 in many cases, prefer the passage through the canal to 

 the ancient navigation ; though every vessel passing 

 this way, is' of course subjected to the payment of a toll. 

 The following Table will give the reader an idea of the 

 navigation of the Kiel or Holstein canal. 



Table of the Vessels which have passed through the Hol- 

 stein Canal letween the years 1784 and 1798. 



Years. 



Danish 

 vessels. 



Foreign 

 vessels. 



Total. 



Years. 



Danish 

 vessels. 



Foreign 

 vessels. 



Total. 



1784 

 1785 

 1786 

 1787 

 17S8 

 1789 

 1790 

 1791 



409 

 333 

 520 

 490 

 792 

 678 

 794 



44 



67 

 125 

 136 

 280 

 293 

 456 



77 

 453 

 400 

 645 

 626 



1072 

 961 



1250 



1792 

 1793 

 1794 

 1795 

 1796 

 1797 

 1798 



787 

 849 

 927 

 983 

 921 

 925 

 1086 



722 

 1441 

 1192 



970 

 1258 

 1180 

 1 164 



1509 

 2290 

 2019 

 1953 

 2179 

 2105 

 2250 



The facility of communication which is thus afforded 

 between Denmark, Norway, and the duchies, is of the 

 greater importance, as those provinces have various 

 articles to interchange with each other. Copenhagen 

 sends to Holstein the American and Indian produce, 

 and receives in return German goods. For a long time 

 past, a packet-boat has sailed between Kiel and the ca- 

 pital. Norway procures from Denmark and the duchies, 

 corn, spirituous liquors, and several kinds of manufac- 

 tures, and in return furnishes these provinces with iron, 

 copper, fish, and oil. Denmark and Norway can ex- 

 change almost all kinds of commodities without any 

 duty. The duchies can import their produce free of 

 duty into either of those provinces, but their manufac- 

 tures must pay a rate of entry. The trade to Finmark 

 or Danish Lapland, which belonged at first to an ex- 

 clusive company, and afterwards to the king, has, since 

 the year 1787, been open to all the subjects of the 

 Danish states without distinction. They carry thither 

 corn, spirits, tobacco, cloths, and utensils of various 

 kinds, and bring back fish, oil, rein-deer skins, furs, &c. 

 In 1788, the imports at Copenhagen from Finmark 

 amounted to 42,376 rix-dollars. The trade to Iceland too, 

 was long in the hands of successive companies of Danish 

 merchants, who ruined the province to enrich thern^ 



selves. In 1789, a free trade with this island also was Statistics. 

 allowed to all the inhabitants of the Danish states, but ^- '~. _l ' 

 foreigners are still entirely excluded. The imports 

 from Iceland, which consist of dried and salted fish, oil, 

 salted beef and mutton, tallow, hides, feathers, eider- 

 down, sulphur, wool, stockings, mittens, &c. amount 

 annually to 200,000 rix dollars. And the commodities 

 sent to that province amount to about 1 50,000, consist- 

 ing chiefly of meal, beer, spirituous liquors, wine, wool- 

 len and linen cloths, hats, coffee, tea, spices, salt, iron- 

 mongery, paper, and soap. Since 1 787, Bergen, Chris- 

 tiansand, Altona, and some other places, have shared 

 with the capital the profits of the trade to Iceland. A 

 packet-boat sails in spring from Copenhagen to Iceland, 

 and returns in autumn to Christiansand in Norway. 

 Denmark imports from the Faroe islands, the trade of With the 

 which has never yet been declared free, dried and salt- Faroe isles. 

 ed fish, oil, feathers, hides, tallow, and woollen stock- 

 ings, and it sends thither meal, spirituous liquors, tea, 

 coffee, sugar, spices, linen, glass, and several other ar- 

 ticles. The exports to these islands amount, at an ave- 

 rage, to 22,251 dollars yearly, and.the imports to nearly 

 the same sum. Denmark sends out a considerable num- With 

 ber of vessels to the whale fisheries of Greenland. It Greenland, 

 imports besides from the settlement, oil, fish, eider- 

 down, and furs, and sends out meal, coarse woollen 

 cloths, tobacco, spirituous liquors, sugar, and spices. 

 The exports to Greenland will amount to about 80,000 

 dollars yearly, and the imports, including the produce of 

 the whale fisheries, which is fully the half, to about 

 180,000. The commerce of Denmark, with its islands With tlie 

 in America, like that, with its other distant possessions, American 

 was long carried on by oppressive monopolies. Before the ls an ** 

 late war with Britain (Feb. 1814.) suspended this branch 

 of their commerce, by depriving them of their islands, the 

 trade to St John and St Thomas had, however, become 

 free to all the subjects of Denmark. Vessels were like- 

 wise sent from all the Danish ports to the island of St 

 Croix ; but the cargoes they brought home were to be 

 delivered at Copenhagen, unless the ships belonged to 

 some of those cities in which sugar houses had been 

 established. The cargoes destined for these possessions, 

 consisted of laces of all kinds* of iron and of, copper, 

 of Danish and foreign manufactures, and of Indian com- 

 moditiss. Sugar, ruin, and cotton, were the principal 

 returns of the Danish islands ; but indigo, tobacco, ma- 

 hogany, and coffee, were also procured from other 

 places in those parts, through the medium of these co- 

 lonies. The number of ships employed in this branch 

 of Danish commerce varied according to circumstances; 

 but they may have amounted at an average to between- 

 70 and 80, of from 80 to 120 tons burden. The Danes 

 carried on a small trade also in one or two ships, with 

 their settlements on the coast of Guinea. They sent 

 out brandy, linen, Indian commodities, gun-powder, 

 and arms, and brought home elephants teeth, and gold. 

 The slave trade was long with the Danes, as with the Slave trade. 

 other commercial states of Europe, the principal branch, 

 of commerce on the coast of Africa. But this horrid 

 traffic ceased in 1803, agreeable to an edict published 

 in 1792 ; and let it be recorded to the honour of the 

 Danish government, that arbitrary though it be, in this 

 instance it first recognised the sacred rights of humanity, 

 and led the way in those efforts which the present age • 

 is making, to wipe away the disgrace of the civilised 

 world. In 1616, a Danish East India company was East inch'.! 

 established by Christian the Fourth. This, as also two companies- 

 other successive companies, have been dissolved. The 

 present East India or Asiatic company was established 

 in 1732, with the exclusive right of trading to all places 



