The Chamber of Customs 1760-1848
Generaltoldkammeret 1760-1848
The Chamber of Customs 1760-1848 in general is treated in Finance. The
following therefore discusses only the West Indian affairs of this institution,
which, throughout its existence was in charge of the central administration of
the colonies in the West Indies and Guinea.
The institution was established on 7 January 1760 under the name West India
and Guinea Chamber of Revenue and Customs. As the name conveys, the
administration of the two colonial spheres was an important part of the Chamber’s
activities. This field of authority was taken over from the Chamber of Revenue.
In 1816, the Chamber of Customs was joined with the Board of Commerce into a
new institution called the Chamber of Customs and Commerce. In practice, the
merger was felt only at the bureaucratic levels, since the various departments
continued to do the same work as before. This also applied to their filing
routines. The material administration of all Denmark’s tropical colonies (the
Indian establishments had hitherto fallen under the Board of Commerce) was
centralised in the Chamber’s India Office. The only exceptions were matters
regarding military command, which were decided directly by the king;
ecclesiastical and educational affairs, and cases concerning the administration
of justice, probate, and medical systems, which belonged under the Danish
Chancellery; and the administration of royal estates and such outstanding debts
as were managed by the National Debt Directorate.
Beginning in the 1830s, the central administration was subject to criticism
because the collegial system of management and division of responsibilities was
slow and expensive. Upon Denmark’s transition from absolute to constitutional
monarchy, the administrative system prevailing hitherto was replaced by a
ministerial system. In this system, each administrative branch was – and is
–headed by a minister responsible for the final decision in all matters.
Denmark’s first free constitution was signed on 5 June 1849, but most of
the central administration had been reorganised the previous year. In March
1848, the name of the Chamber of Customs and Commerce was changed to Ministry of
Trade. However, this was only intended as a provisional measure. By a royal
resolution of 24 November 1848, the ministerial system was fully implemented,
and colonial matters fell to the newly established Central Directorate for the
Colonies under the Ministry of Finance, while foreign commercial and consular
matters were transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The provisional Ministry of Trade’s West Indian files are now kept among the
archives of the Chamber of Customs.
Archives
In 1760, all the Chamber of Revenue’s West Indian and Guinean fields of
authority were transferred to the Chamber of Customs. There, colonial affairs
were handled by the Secretariat and by the separate West India and Guinea
Revenue Office.
The archives of the central Secretariat contain a good deal of material on
the Danish West Indies. The following archival units should be mentioned: the
West India and Guinea commission registers 1760-1837 (2 vols., catalogue no.
I.A.3) including a few original commissions 1763-1805 (1 box, catalogue no.
I.A.3) and files concerning confirmation of commissions 1840 (1 box, catalogue
no. I.A.3); a register of instructions for West India and Guinea 1760-1770 (1
vol., catalogue no. I.A.4); the West India and Guinea transaction register
1760-1771 (1 vol., catalogue no. I.C.1.a); an extract register of incoming West
India and Guinea cases 1767-1768 (1 vol., catalogue no. I.C.1.a); files referred
to in the West India and Guinea extract register 1760-1768 (1 box, catalogue no.
I.C.1.a). From later periods, there should be mentioned the West Indian
transaction registers 1773-1813 (5 vols., catalogue no. I.C.1.b); registers of
nominations to posts in the West Indies and Guinea 1819-1837 (1 vol., catalogue
no. I.C.3); and a register of guarantees provided by Danish, German, and West
Indian officials 1768-1833 (1 vol., catalogue no. I.C.4).
Most of the West Indian – and the relatively few Guinean – records,
however, are to be found in a special section, no. IV, of the Chamber of Customs’
archives. Altogether, this material takes up 99 shelf metres.
A partly obsolete catalogue of the entire archives of the Chamber of Customs
is to be found in J. Bloch, Rentekammeret, Generaltoldkammeret og
Kommercekollegiet 1660-1848, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 2,
Copenhagen 1892, pp. 247-299, while a more modern but less detailed survey is to
be found in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets
benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 407-436. A completely new
detailed catalogue of the West Indian and Guinean cases of the Chamber of
Customs is a part of this site.
Most of this West Indian and Guinean material consists of the usual source
types, such as royal resolutions, letter copy books, journals and appurtenant
journal files, incoming reports, letters, etc.; all divided into the following
periods: 1760-1771 (72 archival units), 1771-1816 (316 units), and 1816-1848
(510 units). Further material, which constitutes almost a fifth of the archival
group, is the documents of the Colonial Auditing Office 1755-1852 (26 archival
units) and a group of files (156 units) organised thematically into important
subgroups concerning the black population, legislation, the military, commerce
and customs, accounting, and miscellanea. This file group has been slightly
rearranged during the recent catalogueing.
It should be noted that, during the intermezzo from May 1771 to January 1773,
West Indian matters belonged under the Third Office of the Chamber of Revenue’s
Danish Department. The West Indian copy book, journal, and journal files from
this period of almost two years are listed as Chamber of Revenue archives (see Finance), while other West Indian cases from that period are found in the
Chamber of Customs’ archives.
Literature
For literature on the Chamber of Customs, see Finance.
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