La Place de l'Elbe inférieure dans le commerce triangulaire au milieu du XVIIe siècle

摘要

Studies on the part played by the Lower Elbe in 17th century slave-trading are not numerous. The subject is rather a complex one because it involves Danish and Swedish interests in that region. The author had use of Danish and Swedish publications as well as existing records at the Rigsarkiv in Copenhagen. Like the Danes after the Thirty Years' War, the Swedes wanted to take part in African and East Indian commerce through slave-trading from the Lower Elbe. Their point of departure was to be Stade, which had fallen under Swedish domination. At the same time they were relying on the capital of the Hamburg merchants. The Danes, with their fortress at Glückstadt, were in the same position. Swedish operations began in 1648. They were to be interrupted by the war with Denmark. After the peace-treaty, they tried taking up their expeditions once more but they soon failed as a resuit of Dutch opposition. Danish expeditions from Glückstadt began in 1640 and they succeeded in taking root on the African coast during the war with Sweden, and then encountered difficulties with the Dutch. In 1671 there was an attempt at concentrating activities in Copenhagen, and the year after that the island of St. Thomas was occupied.