(1731-1807)
Silks, spices, tea
and porcelain. These and other exotic products of China had been
eagerly sought by Europeans since Roman times. But the land route
through the Euroasian deserts along the "Silk Route" allowed only a
trickle of Oriental products to reach the Western World. In the
16th century the sea route to the Orient was discovered. In the
centuries that followed the seafaring nations of Europe vied for
control of the China Trade. In the early 18th century, the
collection of Oriental products became an obcession among the
European aristocracy. Separate rooms and castles were built to
display the collections of the most devoted such as Alexander the
Strong of Saxony.
It was to be the end of the 17th century or even the beginning of
the 18th before all the West European maritime powers were
represented by companies on the new trade routes to the Far East.
Smaller powers with access to the sea, such as Denmark, Sweden, the
Austrian Netherlands and Prussia got the chance to make a place for
themselves, next to old Spain and Portugal and to the even strongly
established England, the Dutch Republic and France, which meanwhile
had expanded to become world powers.
In 1731 a Swedish East India Company was founded.
Not all the new companies were to be
equally successful in their trading. The Swedish East India
Company, established 1731 on the initiative of private merchants
but with the caution of the central government, profited from the
vain attempts of building new companies in some countries and from
the short lived companies' existence in other as well. Both the
Swedish and reformed Danish company were profiting from the vacuum
created by the disappearance of the Austrian East India Company or
commonly called Ostend Company because based in Ostend, itself
dissolved under pressure from the great powers.
The companies ventured upon colonization,
because for example anyone who possessed settlements on the route
to the Orient could revictual more easily during the passage, while
those who did not, always had to go to their rivals or competitors
to replenish their stocks of provisions or change their drinking
water. Did they intend to succeed, they had to work out schedules
for quick but safe sailing routes and solve their own acute
problems, when not always willing to depend on the competitors.
Even smaller companies tried to be represented both in India and in
China in order to conduct trade there. It is plain that for smaller
companies - and thus for smaller powers - the East was too far off
and too vast in area for them to make an appearance everywhere on
the trading scene.
The Swedes
drew the lesson from their unfortunate Ostend colleagues, which
company's presence both in India and China very probably had
accelerated its collapse. After several somewhat unsuccessful
experiments in Surat and Bengal, the Swedes specialized in the
China trade. The ultimate option of the Swedes for an East Indian
trade that forsook, whether deliberately or otherwise, every form
of colonization, was to bring nothing but profit to the enterprise
and to sustain its prosperity for almost a century. This
characteristic attitude would not be without historical
significance for the Swedish policy of neutrality in later
centuries.
Nevertheless the trade with China was a difficult one. The Chinese
regarded all foreigners with suspicion and contact with the
"Foreign Devils" was severely restricted. Trading was allowed only
in Canton and only under the supervision of Chinese "Hong"
merchants. Foreign traders were not even permitted to live in
Canton and could only visit their warehouses during the trading
season.
Once trading was finished, the cargo was loaded - porcelain in
bundles, tubs and wooden boxes cushioned with rice paddy or
marketable goods such as gallingall, pepper, rice, sago, or tea, at
the bottom for ballast, followed by chests of tea and finally the
precious silks and spices.
The China Trade was a risky venture. Taxes, tributes, bribes and
deceptions were rife. Storms, pirates, disease and rival traders
were constant threats during the two-year round trip voyage from
Europe. Most went well but sometimes disaster struck - as with the
Gotheborg. Despite the risks, traders made huge profits for their
companies, themselves and their countries.
A sailing route functioning by wind and ocean
currents
From Gothenburg on the west coast, the Swedish
ships, just as their competitors leaving from Lorient, Amsterdam,
London, Ostend, Copenhagen or Emden, tried to reach the zone of the
northeast trades as quickly as possible so as to benefit from their
favorable influence for the maximum length of time. For the East
Indiamen set course for the northern coasts of South America,
sailing via the Canary or Cape Verde Islands. The course of the
first leg of the passage is reminiscent of the sailing routes of
the expeditions of Christopher Columbus (1493-1500), Cabral (1500),
Amerigo Vespucci (1497), Magellan (1519-1520) and Drake (1578).
This is not wholly surprising, for this course answered to the most
natural imperatives imposed on sailing ships by the trade wind
system prevailing in the Atlantic Ocean. The route parallel with
the coast of West Africa was always time-consuming because it was
too dependent upon local winds.
