Swedish East India Company
The small seal of the SOIC during the last octroi
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Native name
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Svenska Ostindiska Compagniet |
|---|---|
| Public company | |
| Industry | Trade |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Founded | 14 June 1731 |
| Founder | Henrik König Colin Campbell Niclas Sahlgren |
| Defunct | 13 December 1813 |
| Headquarters | Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Website | http://www.ostindiskakompaniet.se/ |
The Swedish East India Company (Swedish: Svenska Ostindiska Companiet or SOIC) was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1731 for the purpose of conducting trade with the Far East. The venture was inspired by the success of the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company and grew to become the largest trading company in Sweden during the 18th century, though its European influence was marginal, until it folded in 1813.
Sweden was the last of the more prominent seafaring European nations to engage in the East India Trade. The royal privileges for the Swedish East India Company (SOIC) were granted almost a century after the other European trading companies were established.
With the advent of the East India trade in the 1600s, Chinese and Indian good were being imported to Sweden. Drinking tea and having Chinese objects became the height of fashion in the Swedish socialite and the middle class. Chinese culture, philosophy, art, agriculture and architecture were also studied and copied. The most prominent example of this is the Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm, which was followed by smaller parks like the one built by Jean Abraham Grill at Godegård. China was considered a model community, a template for how a country should be governed. This culminated during the 1700s, when many Swedish scientists and politicians even suggested that Sweden should be governed by intellectual bureaucrats, "mandarines", led by a sovereign king in a Chinese manner.
The first attempt of organizing a Swedish East India trading company was made by a Flemish merchant, Willem Usselincx. During the 1600s, the Dutch merchants dominated the newly founded Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden. The town was considered ideal for Sweden's international trade since most of the goods were transported on ships and this was the only major Swedish port accessible without having to pass the Danish customs at Øresund. On 14 June 1626, Usselincx received royal privileges for a trading company for twelve years, from the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf. The privileges included clauses about the ethics of trading with foreign, indigenous people. The first priority was to establish friendly, long-term relations that would be mutually beneficiary for both parties. The venture was supported by a number of prominent Swedes, including the King himself, but raising the necessary money proved harder. Political difficulties and Sweden's participation in the Thirty Years' War where King Gustav II was killed, put an end to the plans. The resources were instead used for a smaller company, trading within Europe.
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