{{Short description|Danish-Norwegian trading company}} The '''General Trade Company''' ({{langx|da|Det almindelige Handelskompagni}}) was a Dano-Norwegian trading company charged with administering the realm's settlements and trade in Greenland. The company existed from 1747 to 1774 and managed the government of Greenland from 1749.
==History== The General Trade Company was founded on 4 September 1747. Learning from the mistakes of the earlier Bergen Greenland Company and the relative success of Jacob Severin's operation on the island, the company received a full monopoly on trade around its settlements and armed ships flying the Danebrog to prevent better-armed, lower-priced, and better-quality Dutch goods from bankrupting the enterprise. It focused its operations on getting seal skins and whale oil from the native hunters for resale in Europe.<ref name="ole!">Marquardt, Ole. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=FZQcjsSitEcC&pg=PA149 Change and Continuity in Denmark's Greenland Policy]" in ''The Oldenburg Monarchy: An Underestimated Empire?''. Verlag Ludwig (Kiel), 2006.</ref>
The GTC received Hans Egede's Godthaab; the Moravian missions Neu-Herrnhut and Lichtenfels; and Severin's trading stations at Christianshaab, Jakobshavn, and Frederikshaab. The General Trade Company was granted a monopoly only within a certain radius around its settlements and therefore undertook a campaign to expand the number of trading posts along the west coast<ref>The east coast of Greenland was inaccessible throughout this period owing to icebergs.</ref> as swiftly as it could profitably do so: Claushavn in 1752, Fiskenæsset in 1754, Ritenbenck and Egedesminde and Sukkertoppen in 1755, Holsteinsborg in 1756, Umanak in 1758, Upernavik in 1771, Godhavn in 1773, and Julianehaab in 1774.<ref name="ole!"/>
The same year as the foundation of Julianehaab, 1774, the [General Trade Company] folded, although for reasons unrelated to the profitability of its operations in the colony.<ref name="ole!"/> It was replaced by the Royal Greenland Trade Department (''Kongelige Grønlandske Handel'', KGH), a state company which maintained control of the colony for the next century and a half.
==References== {{reflist|2}}
== External links== *[http://www.jmarcussen.dk/historie/hart/rejser/kompagni/kompagni.html#dest290 Source]
Category:Defunct companies of Greenland Category:Defunct companies of Denmark Category:Former monopolies Category:Chartered companies Category:Danish companies established in 1747 Category:Companies disestablished in 1774 Category:Danish colonisation in Greenland Category:Economic history of Denmark Category:1747 establishments in Denmark Category:History of Greenland Category:1774 disestablishments in Europe Category:Trading companies of Denmark Category:Trading companies established in the 18th century