654 



Statistics. 



Trade with 

 India aud 



China. 



Foreign 

 commerce. 



between the Cape of Good Hope and China for forty 

 years. They also obtained the government of the Da- 

 nish possessions in India, and the right of making 

 treaties in their own name with the Asiatic princes. 

 When their charter expired in 1772, it was renewed 

 for twenty years, but with considerable alterations. 

 The commerce with China was again bestowed exclu- 

 sively on the company, but that with India was opened 

 to individuals on certain conditions. In 1792, the corn- 

 piny obtained a second renewal of their charter for 

 other twenty years, on nearly the same terms as the 

 former ; but the freedom of the Indian trade was then 

 still further extended. Vessels may now be freighted 

 by private adventurers, not only in all the Danish, but 

 also in foreign ports, on obtaining the necessary licen- 

 ces. Their cargoes on their return, must, however, be 

 brought to Copenhagen, and sold by auction. The 

 number of these private vessels were, in 1797, eleven, 

 of which three were from Danish, and eight from fo- 

 reign ports. In 1798, there were thirteen, four Danish, 

 and the rest foreign. In 1799. they were the same as 

 in the preceding year. The capital of the Danish East 

 India company is 2,400,000 rix dollars, divided into 

 4800 shares of 500 rix dollars each. During the Ame- 

 rican war these shares sold at 1800 and 1900rix-dol- 

 lars, and the dividends were as high as cent, per cent. 

 From the establishment of the company in 1732 to 

 1745, the value of the cargoes sent from Copenhagen 

 for the Indian commerce, amounted altogether to 

 3,973,474 rix dollars, and the value of the returns to 

 7,470,761. From 1781 to 1787, the exports amounted 

 to 7,559,444 rix dollars, and the sale of the returns 

 brought at Copenhagen, after deducting the duties, 

 12,775,872. From 1780 to 1793, the profits of the 

 Indian and Chinese commerce amounted to 6,308,198 

 rix dollars. Tea, rhubarb, and porcelain, are the prin- 

 cipal articles brought from China. The establishments in 

 India furnish calicoes, silks, sugar, rice, pepper, ginger, 

 cinnamon, indigo, opium, arrack, and- saffron. Besides 



DENMARK. 



Baltic, particularly St Petersburg, Riga, and Memel, Statistics. 

 with herring, dried fish, the woollen manufactures of """ "Y""""'' 

 Iceland and the Faroe islands, salt from France, Spain, 

 and Portugal, the commodities of India and China, oys- 

 ters, and dog-skin gloves. And they bring home pot- 

 ashes, planks, firewood, hemp, flax, cordage, iron, cop* 

 per, and linen. The commerce with Germany is im- 

 portant. The Germans draw from this country a great 

 number of horses, cattle fattened in the pastures of 

 Marscheland, butter, cheese, fish, oil, woollen stock- 

 ings, sugar, and tea; and give in exchange, thread, 

 linen, wool, brandy, wines, ironmongery, paper, and 

 books. The inhabitants of Sleswick, Holstein, and 

 Norway, have long maintained an intimate commercial 

 intercourse with the Dutch, from whom there is a 

 great demand for rapeseed, wood, fish, &c. ; and who 

 give in return spices, medicines, seeds, tobacco-pipes, 

 and paper. The commerce of England with the Da- 

 nish states is chiefly with Norway, whence it imports 

 a great quantity of wood. Most of the commercial 

 towns t>f France are well acquainted with the Danish 

 flag. The articles of exchange are, on the one side, 

 butter, cheese, horses, fish, wood, and various Russian 

 commodities ; and, on the other, salt, wines, fruits, 

 brandy, silk and woollen stuffs, and paper. Denmark 

 exports for Spain and Portugal much the same articles 

 as for France ; and receives in return, salt, wines, dried 

 fruits, and American goods. The Danish commerce in 

 the Mediterranean, including the ports of France and 

 Spain situated on that sea, employs a great number of 

 ships. These vessels are laden outward with wood 

 and fish from Norway, beef and butter from Holstein, 

 and iron from Sweden ; and they bring home wines, 

 brandy, fruits, oils, and salt. The Danes derive great 

 profit from hiring their vessels in the ports of Italy, 

 where they are in great request, on account of the Da- 

 nish flag being respected by the states of Barbary, with 

 whom Denmark takes care to be at peace. The fol- 

 lowing Table shews the number of merchant vessels, 



Shipping 



Places to which they belong. 



Copenhagen 



India Company 



Gr. Bailiwick of Zealand 

 Gr. Bailiwick of Funen . 

 Laaland and Falster . . . 

 Gr. Bailiwick of Aalborg 



of Viborg 



of Aarhuus 



of Ripen . 



Sleswick , 



Holstein , 



Norway 



Total 



Vessels 



Tonnage. 



320 



8 



52 



57 



14 



51 



4 



95 



82 



463 



290 



50,000 



4,724 



4,526 



2,522 



460 



2,046 



114 



4,026 



4,978 



40,354 



38,842 



4,417 



175 



109 



40 



214 



12 



349 



1,026 



2,788 

 3,434 



the silver for China, Denmark ships for the Indian above twenty tons, belonging to Denmark in 1799, as 

 market, metals, spirituous liquors, pitch, and various also their tonnage and their crews : 

 manufactures. The vessels employed in the Indian 

 trade are of four hundred, and those in the Chinese of 

 a thousand tons burden. 



The foreign trade of Denmark was long in the pos- 

 session of the Hanse towns, and particularly of Lubeck ; 

 but the kings of Denmark wishing to shake themselves 

 free of the Lubeckers, who often interfered irt the po- 

 litics of the North, encouraged commercial intercourse 

 with the Dutch, who reaped the chief advantages of 

 the Danish foreign trade from the middle of the six- 

 teenth to the end of the seventeenth century. About 

 that time the Danes began to desire a commercial ma- 

 rine of their own, which they by degrees acquired; 

 and which, during the almost constant neutrality they 

 have maintained since the peace of 1720, has been 

 vastly increased. The importation of all foreign com- 

 modities into Denmark is permitted on paying the sta- 

 ted duties, with the exception of the following articles : 

 Sugar, either raw or refined, coming from European 

 ports; porcelain, coloured delf, cards, burnt coffee, 

 printed calicoes, and a few kinds of woollen cloth. 

 Some articles of necessity, and such as are essential to 

 the encouragement of the arts, are exempted from the 

 rates of entry. The exportation, also, of all sorts of 

 commodities is permitted from the Danish states, on 

 paying the duties, with the single exception of the 

 wood of certain districts in Norway. The merchants 

 of Denmark have formed relations with most of the 

 commercial states. They frequent the ports of the 



1426 



747 



2183 



150,980 

 98,940 



249,938 



12,564 

 6,336 



18,900 



In 1798, the number of vessels, foreign and Danish, 

 which entered the port of Copenhagen, amounted to 

 5947- There has been at Copenhagen, ever since the Maritime 

 year 1729, a maritime insurance company. The amount Insurance 

 of the insurances in 1796 was 5,973,812 rix dollars; Company, 

 that of the premiums 273,272, and that of the payment 

 of losses 304,459. At the end of the same year the 

 capital of the company was 663,773; and at a general 

 meeting of the proprietors, it was agreed that the divi- 



