Danmarks Handel og Industri

 XVII 300 years ago, in order to secure bases for Danish commerce in the East, and he established a series of mercantile and industrial companies. It was also Christian IV. who built the Copenhagen Exchange, the beautiful world famous building with the dragon spire, which was erected under the personal supervision of the King, and which was intended by him to be »the Danish Exchange« and, according to his own inscription on the gable of the building, to be devoted »to the profitable use of buyers and sellers«. In modern times, the so-called »brilliant commercial period« — the Danish Commercial Empire —■ in the latter part of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century is surrounded by a particular splendour. Amidst the great wars raging at that time Denmark had succeeded in remaining neutral, and, sheltered by neutrality, trade and shipping flourished, especially shipping- trade in the Mediterranean and the overseas trade with the West Indies and the East. The principles, which under these circumstances were put forward on the part of Denmark were subsequently established as the recognised international principles of law which are to be followed on the high seas by neutral countries in times of war. But for Denmark there ensued, after this brilliant period a time of misfortune and adversity which was initiated by the bombardment of Copenhagen by the English in 1807. In the succeeding years of war, thousands of Danish ships were captured, the foreign trade of Copenhagen was ruined, and complete disaster was finally accomplished in the national bankruptcy in 1813 and, in the following year, the cession of Norway which up to that time had been under the Danish Crown. In the 19th—20th century, under the influence of a series of important inventions trade has acquired a more international character, and also Denmark has contributed her share in this respect, in the first instance through H. C. Ørsted’s invention of electro magnetism, which gave the first impulse to the electro telegraph. Denmark’s own trade, however, after the unfortunate circumstances at the beginning of the 19th century became to a very depressing degree dependent on Hamburg, which city not only acquired the bulk of the transit trade, hitherto carried on by Danish merchants, but also took over the largest part of Denmark’s own supply and her foreign trade. The wars with Prussia in the years 1848—50, however, seriously curtailed Hamburg’s trade with Denmark, and when the latter in 1864 was forced to cede not only Holstein and Lauenborg, but also Sleswig to Germany, it effected a powerful rousing of the national feeling and all efforts were turned towards