The Danish West Indies Under Company Rule (1671-1754); With a Supplementary Chapter, 1755-1917 - Waldemar Westergaard

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 Excerpt: ...The votes of the royal family were among the majority. The slave trade was formally thrown open to subjects in the Danish West Indies who might wish to participate by a royal mandate issued April 25, 1734. The directors fixed a duty of eight rixdollars on slaves brought to St. Thomas and half that sum on those brought to St. Croix.42 Since this concession to freedom in trade failed to bring about the hoped-for increase, the trade was thrown open to all Danish subjects, whether they lived in home lands or in the colonies. The results were just encouraging enough to make it worth while for the Company to enter into an agreement with private merchants and shipowners on December 3,1745, with a view to preventing needless competition and duplication of effort. Finally, in 1747, a plan was formulated and put into operation which resulted in the Company's virtually absorbing the private interests. The reorganization of the Danish West India and Guinea Company under the "Convention of 1747" marks the last stage of the slave trade as a field of investment for that Company. An attempt was made to correct some of the more common abuses connected with the Guinea trade. Captains and officers were forbidden under severe penalty to take slaves on board on their own account, and by way of encouragement to large cargoes a progressive bounty was provided, beginning with 7 rdl. and rising to 20 rdl. for each slave above three hundred.43 But the years that elapsed before the king took over the Company's holdings in 1754 were too few to permit of any extensive development. It became clearer and clearer after 1750 that the days of the Company were numbered; consequently it was more important for the latter to conserve its resources than to divert them into uncertain ch...