Page 28 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ

Pic. 14: Headquarters of the Swedish East India Company (SOIC) in
Gothenburg

The other Scandinavian East India company – the Danish Asiatisk Kompagni
(DAK) – was smaller and was already the third attempt by the Danish government to
set up an economically sustainable trading firm. Established in 1732, it focused not
only on the Canton trade but also had a foothold on the Indian East Coast –
Tranquebar. The DAK carried out 120 voyages to Canton, mostly directly between
Copenhagen and China, several also with a stop at their trading post on the Indian
Coromandel Coast. The first DAK ship, the Slesvig, reached Canton in 1734. Both
Scandinavian companies imported mainly tea and porcelain for domestic use or to
smuggle to Great Britain.
The two European continental powers, France and the Habsburg Empire, never
played a big role in the Sino-European trade. Both were victims of European power
games and the wars of the 18th century. France had already established in 1664 an
East India company with trade privileges between the Cape of Good Hope and the
Strait of Magellan, and its first president was the Minister of Finance of Louis XIV.
However, the numerous and long-lasting wars against England, the Dutch and the
Habsburg Monarchy impeded any bigger engagement in sea-born trade. The War of
Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War between France and Great Britain even
found battlefields in India, where France had a big colonial possession around
r
Pondichéy at the East Coast of India. Even though the first French ship, the
Amphitrite, had already reached Canton in 1699, trade had to be suspended various
times, for several years, in order to avoid hostile action of European powers against
the ships of the Compagnie des Indes (CDI). The CDI had its headquarters in the
harbor of Lorient, but usually auctioned Chinese or Indian commodities in Nantes.
Bigger shipments took place in the years 1722-1723. More than 683,000 pieces were
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auctioned . Other major shipments took place in the 1730s, the 1760s and the 1770s
39 . The Company was liquidated by 1790.
The history of the Habsburg Ostend Company (officially Compagnie générale
établie dans les Pays-Bas Autrichiens pour le Commerce et la Navigation aux Indes)
is much shorter, however economically more successful. The Austrian Netherlands
(nowadays Belgium and Luxemburg) became territory of the Habsburg Monarchy in
1714 following the War of Spanish Succession. By this acquisition, the favorable deep
sea port of Ostend served as a departure point for the vessels of the first Habsburg
East India company in 1722. The headquarters was in Antwerp, the major trading hub
of the early spice trade of the Portuguese in the 16th century. Within the relatively
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short period of existence, ten years, 21 ships were sent out to Canton and India . The
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