I am Tang Di, a history buff. Welcome everyone [attention] I, let's talk about the past and the present, and discuss the general trend of the world. Gentleman I, just to learn and make friends!
When you think of the East India Company, you immediately think of Britain, the Netherlands, or France, and other countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Austria and other countries have also been established, but not much is known. These institutions of monopoly of East India trade by these Western European countries, established in the 17th and 18th centuries, are generally referred to as the "East India Company".
1. Overview of the Swedish East India Company
King Gustav II of Sweden (reigned 1611-1632) planned to establish the East India Company in 1626, but before the king died, the plan was shelved for nearly a hundred years.
The Swedish East India Company was established in the era of Frederick I (1720-1761), a fifteen-year concession granted by Frederick I in 1731 to henrik Konig, a great merchant in Stockholm, to trade across the Cape of Good Hope and the countries of the East.
The company's largest shareholder was the Scottish Englishman Colin Campbell, one of the co-owners of the Ostend Company, which closed in Flanders in 1727, had extensive experience managing cargo on ships of East India trade, and intended to dedicate the rest of his life to the operation of the Swedish East India Company. The company's headquarters were located in Gothenburg, and from 1750 to 1763, offices with warehouse equipment were built.
At the time of the establishment of the Swedish East India Company, there were the following regulations:
First of all, the company ship only needs to fly the Swedish flag; the ship must be built with domestic timber, or purchase domestically built ships; imports and exports must pay certain tariffs; Swedish currency cannot be taken out of the country; 3 senior employees of the company: the company documents must be completely destroyed after every three years of final account reports.
The Swedish East India Company was very difficult to operate at the beginning, and on one occasion 2 of the 7 ships sent by the company were taken by competitors, 4 were missing, and the only one left to sink when it entered Gothenburg was suddenly hit a reef.
Although the company has suffered various disasters and its survival has been questioned by many people in China, because its trade activities have brought rich benefits to the Chinese people and made many Swedes rich, which has become the only reason for the survival of the company.
A second concession gave the company a trade monopoly for 20 years from 1746 to 1766. During this period, the company's trade activities were frequent, which led to a significant increase in the amount of customs duties. The number of heads of the company has also increased from 3 to 7, and the company's ships can fly their own flags and sail in the sea.
The third concession was made for 20 years from 1766 to 1786. The company's 20 years of operation brought more than 300% benefits to investors, which can be said to be very fortunate during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783).
The fourth concession was from 1786 to 1806. At this time the company was involved in competition with the East India Company of other countries. No new ships were sent out after 1803. During this period, the company made 132 voyages with 35 ships, of which 8 were lost. The above is an overview of the operations of the Swedish East India Company.
The Swedish East India Company ranks among the most successful domestic trading companies as mercantilist because its ships re-export almost all of the Asian products shipped to Gothenburg (only a small part remains in the country) to European countries. That is to say, the Swedish East India Company has two-sided properties such as trade with India and China and re-exports of Indian and Chinese products to the European continent. However, in terms of its size, it has not been able to join the ranks of Asian trade carried out by countries such as britain and the Netherlands.
2. Trade between the Swedish East India Company and China
The Swedish East India Company came to China from 1731 to 1806, after Frederick I issued a concession, with 35 trading ships and 132 voyages.
The company's headquarters were located in Gothenburg, and 58 East Indian trading ships were sent from there to Guangzhou in the 34 years from 1732 to 1765.
The "Imperial Literature Tongkao" volume 298 "Siyi Kao Ruiguo" article has the phrase "Tongshi began in the Yongzheng Decade (1732), and after the years are endless, every spring and summer", it can be seen that the earliest trade relations between Sweden and China began in the Yongzheng Decade of the Qing Dynasty (1732), and continued year after year. In the Yongzheng Decade (1732), the second year of the establishment of the Swedish East India Company in Gothenburg, Colin Campbell sent ships to China for the first time. According to H.B. Mas called the ship a 400-ton vessel, named Treasury Frederick, carrying 28 guns and 96 crew members.
Regarding the content of trade with Sweden, the Imperial Literature Examination records the following:
"His people come to Guangdong with native black lead, coarse velvet, foreign wine, and raisins to enter from Humen, and it is easy to buy tea and porcelain, and they return to China in early winter."
Swedish black lead, velvet, foreign wine, and raisins were shipped to China. However, raisins should not be native to Sweden, as it may have been that ships anchored in the port of Cádiz, Spain, sold part of their cargo and bought raisins. Therefore, "souvenirs" actually include items from other countries. Swedish ships mainly buy Chinese tea and porcelain.
Tea and porcelain are the items that European countries are eager for Chinese representatives, especially the amount of porcelain imported from Sweden, taking the first half of the 18th century as an example, about 1 million quintals.
And the "Imperial Literature Examination" can also see an example of Trade between China and Sweden, namely:
In the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong, the special purpose of buying silk jin was in October of that year, and ruiguo cotton was tsui and so on; although Yi and other foreign countries had silk jin, they did not know how to weave. In a country that cannot be woven by itself, if it is allowed to take silk jin, it is still for no reason to take it. Now that the Rui kingdom has been in arrears with silk for two or three years, it is implored to first allow the two thousand catties of silk to be made into a horse, and Su Chang, the governor of Liangguang, will play it on behalf of him, and ask him to take it to the end of each thousand pounds, and stop bringing eight hundred pounds of silk, so as not to ask for more, until now the Swiss kingdom is willing to bring two thousand pounds of silk first, there are not many, and the ministers and other ministers are willing to take it to the emperor. Play in, from above.
According to Mas's records, taking a Swedish ship in 1792 (the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong) as an example, it can be known that the Swedish East India Company accounted for the proportion of all Guangdong trade and the name, quantity and amount of the goods imported and exported by the ship. From China's point of view, the trade volume of Swedish ships in this year is 1.3% of the total import value and 3.7% of the export value, which is extremely low. However, 83.8 per cent of Swedish ship imports were tea, namely black tea (79.1 per cent) and green tea (4.7 per cent). That is to say, from the Swedish side, more than 80% of the import value is Chinese tea.
It can be seen that it is not so much that the Swedish East India Company influenced The Trade of Guangdong as that the Trade of Guangdong had a greater impact on the East India Company of Sweden, that is, Sweden received greater benefits from China through Guangdong Trade. As mentioned above, Sweden does reap enormous economic benefits from this.
Although the role of the Swedish East India Company did not play a large role in all parts of Asia as that of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, its main business was to trade with Sweden and China as the center, and the re-export of goods imported from China to the European continent was its main business. From this point of view it does not go beyond the framework of mercantilist policies.
However, the fact that Chinese culture (especially porcelain, etc.) was brought to the Nordic countries through its trade activities is very noteworthy in the early 18th century.
3. Tea trade of the Swedish East India Company
Regarding the re-export of Chinese tea imported by the Swedish East India Company to Britain, there is this description in Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations":
“.... Even cruel laws on tariffs could not prevent the import of Dutch and Gotabaku East India Company tea because it was cheaper than the British Company. ”
The so-called "Netherlands" is the United East India Company, which is familiarly known as "VOC". Gottebaku is Gothenburg and is now the second largest city in Sweden. Why is it that the East India Company of these two countries brought Chinese tea to Britain cheaper than the Direct Import of the British East India Company?
In order to finance the costs of many colonial wars, Britain imposed heavy taxes on the import of Chinese tea and was not allowed to import it from other countries. Therefore, the secret export of Chinese tea to Britain by European countries led by the Netherlands is very common, which is a secret import for Britain. The re-export of Chinese tea to Britain became an important source of revenue for the East India Company in Various European countries.
The above situation is also described in the "Wealth of Nations" as follows, namely:
In Europe before the middle of the previous century (16th century), tea was a rarely used medicine. Now, for the use of the Chinese people, the English East India Company imports tea every year, and its price reaches one hundred thousand pounds, which is not enough, more are imported from the ports of the Netherlands, Gothenburg, Sweden, and even the prosperous French East India Company is also secretly imported from the French coast to the country.
At the time of writing The Wealth of Nations, a considerable proportion of Chinese tea imported by the East India Company from European countries other than Britain was re-exported to Britain.
During this period, the export volume of Chinese tea from Guangzhou, according to the records of H.B. Mas, is shown in Table 2-10 (limited to major European countries). Between 1775 and 1784 there was not much difference in imports between the East India Company of Europe and the British East India Company. However, after 1785, British imports increased dramatically, and in contrast, imports from other European countries decreased sharply.
The reason for this is that William Pitt Jr. introduced the Law of Exchange in 1784. Previously, the tariff rate of the British East India Company's imports of Chinese tea into the country was 119%, and after the implementation of the law, the tariff rate was reduced to 12% in one fell swoop, and the tariff reduction made the demand for Chinese tea in China increase sharply, resulting in an increase in direct imports from the United Kingdom. As a result, the East India Company of other European countries that had previously purchased Chinese tea for the purpose of re-exporting to Britain quickly lost the market, thereby reducing the import of Chinese tea.
The impact of the promulgation of the Exchange Act on the East India Company in Britain and in various countries is also described by Millpohm as follows:
The most important change in 1784 was the creation of the national economy, as the clandestine trade had harmed regular merchants, as tea imports were already clear, with about 1/3 of the tea being officially imported into England.
Because tea was widely used in England, small packages were easy to move around, and had high profits, and were the most advantageous commodities compared to all other secret trade items. The loss of state revenues from such clandestine trade is estimated at least £2 million a year, for which it is best to reduce tariffs on several secret traded goods, especially tea.
From 15 September 1984 onwards, tea leaves taken from the warehouses of the East India Company were subject to a 12 per cent tax on the selling price. Tariffs fell to 12%, the demand for tea in the UK increased significantly, and as a result, the Swedish East India Company also suffered a big economic blow.
(End of text)
If there are other topics or opinions on the field of history, you can [follow] my private chat, or you can leave a message in the comment area below and reply at the first time.