Finance

It was primarily for economic reasons that Denmark established a colony in the Caribbean. In the beginning, the hope of a lucrative colonial trade spurred the Danish king and government; from the mid-18^th century and for the next hundred years, sugar production, commerce, and the shipping flourished; but from the mid-19^th century on, profits dwindled and gradually turned into a constant budget deficit. In Denmark, the strongest arguments for selling the islands to the United States were economic ones.

For many reasons, the Danish authorities in Copenhagen found it important to control and document the financial and economic affairs and transactions concerning the Danish West Indies. A substantial correspondence was therefore kept up between the central administration in Copenhagen and the local authorities in the distant colony. A steady stream of directives, letters of appointment communications, and queries flowed one way, while numerous reports, statements, extracts, accounts, attachments, and statistics flowed the other way. Since large sums were at stake, the central finance administration created particularly large archives, and many of these survive.

Many financial institutions dealt only with West Indian matters on a very limited scale, while other specifically West Indian institutions handled cases concerning the Danish West Indies almost exclusively. In the following, the focus will be on the latter institutions, but the more general ones will also be mentioned. We begin with the institutions of the absolute monarchy before 1848, after which we treat the authorities of the free constitution from 1848 on.

The Chamber of Revenue 1660-1848

Rentekammeret 1660-1848

The Chamber of Revenue was an old and important institution, until 1679 called simply the Treasury. Originally, the Chamber of Revenue was a fiscal agency managing payments received and disbursed by the Danish state and auditing the accounts of government agencies and officials. The Chamber of Revenue gradually developed into the central agency for the administration of a large number of material matters and policies with regard to agricultural affairs, buildings, roads, veterinary affairs, forestry and hunting, and the emerging field of statistics.

In the period 1754-1760, the Chamber had a special West India and Guinea Revenue Office responsible for the central administration of the Danish West Indies after the colony had been taken over by the Danish state. The documents of this office have been assigned group no. 2249 in the general catalogue and comprise 71 archival units (see further details in Chapter 2 and the detailed archival catalogue in Chapter 23). In 1760, this office was transferred to the newly established Chamber of Customs.

Until 1841, the Chamber of Revenue was divided into a Danish, a Norwegian, and a German department. West Indian revenue affairs belonged under the Danish Department. For a brief period from May 1771 until January 1773, the Chamber of Revenue was formally abolished and its affairs were transferred to the newly established Board of Finance’s Third Bureau, but the practical work in the offices continued almost unchanged, and the archival material from this interlude is to be found in the Chamber of Revenue’s archives. In 1841, the Chamber of Revenue was divided into three topical sections, instead of the geographical division prevailing hitherto.

Over time, the Chamber of Revenue, which was very large, ceded various areas of authority to newly established institutions, e.g. in 1735 to the Board of Commerce (see Trade and Industry), in 1760 to the Chamber of Customs (see below), and in 1762 to the Central Internal Revenue Directorate (see below).

When ministerial government was introduced in 1848, the Chamber of Revenue was abolished and the administration of West Indian affairs taken over by the Central Directorate for the Colonies under the Ministry of Finance.

The Chamber of Revenue’s archives 1660-1848 are divided into one main section of cases filed according to office, a lesser section of cases thematically filed, and a small section of cases filed under the commissions that generated them. Altogether, the archives of the Danish Department comprise well above 21,000 archival units or approximately two running kilometres.

The large collection of accounts submitted from far and near to the Chamber of Revenue for audit has been sorted out into a separate archival group (see Accounting and Auditing).

The West Indies

Except for the documents of the Chamber of Revenue’s West India and Guinea Office 1754-1760, files concerning the West Indies are mainly to be found in the Chamber of Revenue’s often rather extensive general series of archival material. The search for West Indian material is easier than it might otherwise be, however, because around 1740, the Chamber of Revenue began to journalise incoming letters, and because many of the series and registers have alphabetical indexes. Among the general series, attention should be called to the large, alphabetically filed collection of applications for employment 1660-1848 (34 boxes, nos. 13.12-13.45) and the collection of other documents concerning private citizens, also alphabetically filed, 1679-1848 (33 boxes, nos. 2214.56-2214.88). A smaller, but nevertheless interesting body of material is the Chamber of Revenue’s copies of instructions for government officials posted to the West Indies, members of the West Indian government, and others. There is, for example, a complete set of instructions from 1755, drawn up when the Danish state took over the administration of the islands from the West India and Guinea Company (nos. 2212.143 and 2212.146).

Of separate West Indian series among the records filed by office, mention should be made of the West Indian copybook 1771-1772 (1 vol., no. 2323.2) and the West Indian journal 1771-1773 (3 vols., nos. 2323.3-2323.5) with appurtenant files 1771-1773 (5 boxes, nos. 2323.6-2323.10), and the copybook of the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and West India Revenue Office 1771-1772 (1 vol., no. 234.5) and the same office’s copybook of applications, calculations, and aides-mémoire 1771-1772 (1 vol., no. 234.6).

Among the thematically sorted files in the statistics group, there are three volumes of statistical surveys of St. Croix 1816-1829 prepared by captain C. G. Erichsen, royal bookkeeper, (no. 322.22), and a statistical survey of St. Thomas and St. John 1815-1835 prepared by David Hoskiær, royal bookkeeper, as well as its sequel in 1841 (nos. 322.23-322.24).

There is also a box containing cover letters and survey tables concerning the censuses taken in the Danish West Indies in 1841 and 1846 (no. 352.77). Although the many census forms before 1848 belong in the Chamber of Revenue’s archives, all censuses from both before and after 1848 are kept separate and, by tradition, treated as a special record series (see Statistics).

Finding Aids

The Chamber of Revenue’s Danish Department is described in detail and catalogued in Jens Holmgaard, Rentekammeret I: Danske og norske afdelinger 1660-1848, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 12, Copenhagen 1964, pp. 1-258. This catalogue partly replaces the obsolete catalogue of the entire archives of the Chamber of Revenue in J. Bloch, Rentekammeret, Generaltoldkammeret og Kommercekollegiet 1660-1848, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 2, Copenhagen 1892, pp. 1-246. See also the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 317-385.

Literature

The essential works are Johan Grundtvig, ed., Bidrag til Rentekammerets Historie 1660-1773, in Meddelelser fra Rentekammerarchivet 1873-1876, Copenhagen 1876, pp. 1-144, and for the period 1773-1816, in Meddelelser fra Rentekammerarchivet 1877, Copenhagen 1878, pp. 1-129, and for the period 1816-1848, in Meddelelser fra Rentekammerarchivet 1878, Copenhagen 1879, pp. 1-106, which three titles contain various instructions, etc. concerning the Chamber of Revenue and its fields of authority. See also August Wiemann Eriksen & Karen Hjorth, Rentekammerjournalen. Et 250-års jubilæum, in Arkiv, vol. 13, 1990, pp. 49-71, and Jens Holmgaard, Arkivkommissionen af 1790. Et bidrag til rentekammerarkivets og proveniensprincippets historie, in Afhandlinger om arkiver. Ved Rigsarkivets 75-års jubilæum 1964, Copenhagen 1964, pp. 139-155. A special series of archival material is described in Birgit Bjerre Jensen, Rentekammerets originale embedsansøgninger 1660-1848. En ødelagt gruppe arkivalier, in Arkiv, vol. 8, 1981, pp. 167-179.

The Chamber of Customs 1760-1848

Generaltoldkammeret 1760-1848

This institution was established in 1760 under the designation The West India and Guinea Chamber of Revenue and Customs. Its secretariat handled general cases, such as customs regulations, appointments, and customs buildings, whereas various special offices administered customs and customs-duty exemption cases as well as harbours and lighthouses. The Chamber of Customs produced a good deal of statistics concerning customs, commerce, shipping, industry, and prices. Finally, the Chamber of Customs was in charge of the central administration of the colonies in the West Indies and Guinea.

In 1816, the Chamber of Customs merged with the Board of Commerce, and the new institution was named the Chamber of Customs and Commerce, but the various offices, including the India Office, continued their work and filing practice as before.

In 1848, upon the transition to ministerial government, the Chamber of Customs was abolished and its most important field of authority was taken over by the Customs Directorate (see below).

The West Indies

The West Indian cases of the Chamber of Customs were, on the whole, kept separate from the Chamber’s other records.; the papers are catalogued in detail in the finding aids.

Finding Aids

J. Bloch, Rentekammeret, Generaltoldkammeret og Kommercekollegiet 1660-1848, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 2, Copenhagen 1892, is the only detailed published finding aid. Today, however, this catalogue is only partly relevant, owing to later arrivals of archival material and reclassification of the archives. The archival section of commercial files is catalogued in detail in Frank Allan Rasmussen, Teknologi. Centraladministrationens behandling af teknologisager 1816-1996, Administrationshistoriske Studier 14, Copenhagen 1998, pp. 173-233. See also the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 407-436.

Literature

See F. Jørgensen, Af det dansk-norske Toldvæsens Historie i det 18. Aarhundrede, Rønne 1905; Aage Rasch, Den kgl. Kanalkommissions arkiv 1774ff, in Arkiv, vol. 3, 1969, pp. 118-126; and Wilhelm von Rosen, Købstædernes havnekommissioner 1798-1868, in Arkiv, vol. 6, 1977, pp. 168-189.

The Central Internal Revenue Directorate 1762-1782

Overskattedirektionen 1762-1782

The first of a number of financial institutions set up under the absolute monarchy to manage government expenditure was the Central Internal Revenue Directorate.

Upon its establishment, in 1762, the Directorate’s charge was to collect and administer the recently levied surtax, whose yield was intended to pay the interest on and reduce the internal and external national debt. Among the duties gradually imposed on the Central Internal Revenue Directorate was the take-over of the General Trading Company and thus the trade with Iceland, Greenland, and Northern Norway, together with part of the West Indian trade, in 1774. The Directorate’s leading member was Heinrich Carl Schimmelmann, an immigrant banker from Hamburg.

From 1778 on, the Central Internal Revenue Directorate was entitled the State Balance and Internal Revenue Directorate. This Directorate was abolished after a reform of the central finance administration in 1782.

The West Indies

The archives of the Central Internal Revenue Directorate comprise 330 archival units. Some of the general series, such as the incoming letters under the letter C in the correspondence files, which are filed alphabetically according to sender, contain a good deal of material relevant to the West Indies. The same is true of the topographically filed correspondence cases under the letter B, such as boxes nos. 130-132 concerning the governor and government of the Danish West Indies 1767-1781, box no. 133 concerning the Secret Council on St. Croix 1772-1773, and boxes nos. 134-136 concerning the Council on St. Thomas 1771-1781.

The Central Internal Revenue Directorate’s account files include a box of documents and accounts concerning the West Indian active debt liquidation 1766-1780 (no. 285); these include instructions regarding royal debt collection on St. Croix in 1766 and various warehouse accounts 1775-1780.

A group of miscellanea among the Directorate archives includes 14 boxes of material concerning trade with and shipping to the Danish West Indies. The material concerns average adjustments, auction records, invoices, etc. for goods to and from the West Indies 1765-1782 (boxes nos. 313 and 316-324), and letters from Governor-General Peder Clausen and other individuals in the Danish West Indies 1766-1771 (boxes nos. 325-328).

Finding Aids

A detailed catalogue can be found in Enevældens Finansarkiver, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 23, Copenhagen 1996, pp. 28-37. See also the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 471-473.

Literature

Regarding the financial archives in general and the period 1661-1699 in particular, see Carl S. Christiansen, Bidrag til den danske Statshusholdnings Historie under de to første Enevoldskonger, vols. 1-2, Copenhagen 1922; for the following period, see J. Boisen Schmidt, Studier over statshusholdningen i kong Frederik IV’s tid 1699-1730, Copenhagen 1967; and for the period 1784-1793, see Hans Christian Johansen, Dansk økonomisk politik i årene efter 1784, vols. 1-2, Århus 1968 and 1980. Harald Jørgensen, Finansforvaltningens Omdannelse i 1816. Bidrag til Centraladministrationens Historie under Frederik VI, in Historisk Tidsskrift, 10^th series, vol. 1, 1930-1931, pp. 191-209, is an organisational study. A more archives-oriented study is Morten Westrup, Finansarkiverne 1679-1816, in Arkiv, vol. 12, 1989, pp. 270-292. Finally, the above-mentioned archival catalogue from 1996 contains a great deal of useful information.

The Board of Finance 1771-1784 and 1784-1816

Finanskollegiet 1771-1784 og 1784-1816

When it was established in 1771, the Board of Finance was the supreme authority of all central finance administration, but from 1774 on, it controlled only government expenditures and monetary matters, etc. The Board of Finance ensured that the Exchequer disbursed to the various administrative branches the money required for salaries, building maintenance, office expenses, etc. In 1784, the Board of Finance’s authority shrank to submitting proposals for the king’s decision, while transactions in the form of disbursements were handled by the Assignation and Bookkeeping Directorate.

The Board of Finance’s archives from the period 1771-1784 aggregate 447 archival units, while the archives for the years1784-1816 come to 1195 archival units.

The West Indies

West Indian cases are to be found primarily in the general series of royal representations, letter copybooks, journals, and journal files. In addition, there are, for the period after 1784, a couple of boxes of documents concerning the West India Company, the West India trade, and miscellaneous loans 1768-1814 assembled by Finance Minister Ernst Schimmelmann (nos. 1143 and 1145). His material concerning the West Indian debt liquidation in the Netherlands 1781-1818 (5 archival units, nos. 1073-1077) should also be mentioned (see also below under the West India Debt Liquidation Directorate).

Finding Aids

A detailed catalogue is to be found in Enevældens Finansarkiver, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 23, Copenhagen 1996, pp. 89-115. See also the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 486-491.

Literature

See the literature mentioned above under the Central Internal Revenue Directorate.

The Assignation and Bookkeeping Directorate 1784-1816

Finanskassedirektionen 1784-1816

On its establishment in 1784, the Assignation and Bookkeeping Directorate took over from the Board of Finance such transactions and cases as concerned the national debt. In the terminology of that time, the active national debt meant that the Danish state was the creditor, while the passive debt meant that the Danish state was the debtor. The Assignation and Bookkeeping Directorate’s archives comprise 1599 archival units.

The West Indies

West Indian files are to be found in the long general series, including those concerning the office of active and passive debts 1784-1802. In that last year, an office was established solely for the management of the active national debt, including the West Indian debt. Relevant archival units found here are: the West Indian letter copybook 1804-1816 (1 vol., no. 1489), the West Indian journal 1785-1816 (1 vol., no. 1491), and the incoming letters recorded in the West Indian journal 1785-1816 (6 boxes, nos. 1492-1497).

The office was transferred to the Directorate for the National Debt and Sinking Fund in connection with the great reform of the central administration in 1816. At that time, the Board of Finance’s upper administration of finance and the Assignation and Bookkeeping Directorate’s practical administration of financial transactions were merged in a new institution called the Finance Commission.

Finding Aids and Literature

A detailed catalogue is to be found in Enevældens Finansarkiver, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 23, Copenhagen 1996, pp. 117-129. See also the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 491-494. See also the literature mentioned above under the Central Internal Revenue Directorate.

The West India Debt Liquidation Directorate 1786-1816

Den Vestindiske Gælds Likvidationsdirektion 1786-1816

In order to finance slave purchases and establishment of sugar plantations, many plantation owners in the Danish West Indies had raised large loans in the Netherlands in the 1760s. Since the security provided was rather inadequate, the terms of the loans were very harsh. The debt had to be redeemed over twenty years. The Danish state felt obliged to act as middleman, assuming the liabilities and guaranteeing payment to the Dutchmen, primarily the firm of Abraham ter Borch. The creditors agreed to accept Danish government bonds in replacement of the original West Indian debt.

The rescheduling of the debt was initiated in 1784 by the Central Bank Directorate and the Board of Finance, in whose archives some documents regarding the matter can be found.

Soon afterwards, however, it was decided to appoint a special directorate to handle the extensive and complicated transactions involved in the debt rescheduling. In 1786, the West India Debt Liquidation Directorate was therefore established. This Directorate was to administer all the Dutch loans and certain other loans granted to plantation owners out of Danish public funds. To ensure the collection of interest and instalments from the plantation owners, the same year saw the appointment of two separate local subcommissions in the Danish West Indies, viz. the West Indian Debt Liquidation Commission on St. Croix and the West Indian Debt Liquidation Commission on St. Thomas and St. John (see West Indian local archives).

The West India Debt Liquidation Directorate was abolished in the administrative reform of 1816, and its authority was transferred to the Directorate for the National Debt and Sinking Fund (see below).

The West Indies

The archives of the West India Debt Liquidation Directorate comprise 163 archival units, divided among correspondence, miscellanea, and accounting material. The correspondence group comprises the management’s letter copybooks, journals, and journal files, and both general and special reports, as well as other correspondence from the two commissions in the West Indies. The group of miscellanea is relatively small (15 archival units, nos. 45-59) and, in the nature of things, rather mixed. The accounting group includes ledgers, cash journals, current accounts, and a large number of more specific statements and vouchers. By way of example, there is material concerning loans obtained for purchasing slaves after 1791 (3 vols., nos. 153-155).

Finding Aids and Literature

A detailed catalogue is to be found in Enevældens Finansarkiver, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 23, Copenhagen 1996, pp. 153-156. See also the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 502-503. See also the literature mentioned above under the Central Internal Revenue Directorate .

The Directorate for the National Debt and Sinking Fund 1816-1848

Direktionen for Statsgælden og Den Synkende Fond 1816-1848

In 1816, all government debt management was concentrated in the Directorate for the National Debt and Sinking Fund. This institution was to manage and book all government debts, active as well as passive. The Directorate’s archives comprise 2308 archival units.

The West Indies

The government’s West Indian assets consisted of real estate and the rather large outstanding debts against plantation owners. Owing to the recession around 1820, the National Debt Directorate was increasingly compelled to take over plantations in order to recover overdue payments.

In the Directorate’s general accounts of the revenues and expenditures of the national debt treasury 1816-1848 (34 archival units, nos. 133-166), the profit made from the Danish West Indies are a permanent item on the revenue side.

Otherwise, the active debt office’s documents are the most likely place to find material relevant to the West Indies. For the period 1816-1821, there is a separate copybook of dispatched letters concerning the West Indies (no. 1245), a journal of West Indian correspondence (no. 1246), and five boxes of West Indian files (nos. 1247-1251). For the subsequent period, corresponding material can be found in the joint copybooks of Danish, German, and West Indian files 1822-1830 (55 vols., nos. 176-230), journals of all files 1822-1830 (37 vols., nos. 254-290), and joint journal files 1822-1830 (91 boxes, nos. 308-398). For the period 1831-1848, there are likewise joint journals (54 vols., nos. 501-554) and the appurtenant journal files (188 boxes, nos. 555-742).

A separate group is the files, 118 archival units in total, concerning the West Indian active debt 1816-1848. This material consists mainly of miscellanea concerning the two local commissions in the West Indies, i.e. their reports and transcripts of the registers of letters received by the West Indian Debt Liquidation Commission on St. Croix 1815-1848 (39 archival units, nos. 1045-1083) and the corresponding transcripts for the West Indian Debt Liquidation Commission on St. Thomas and St. John 1815-1848 (4 archival units, no. 1084-1087). The registers of letters received include extracts of incoming letters and the relevant resolutions. There are also ledgers of West Indian debtors 1816-1875 (4 vols., nos. 1105-1108); files concerning particular plantations, such as Carlton 1817-1828 (no. 1116) and Longford with its mule stud-farm 1828-1840 (no. 1125); West Indian plantation accounts 1824-1847 (3 boxes, nos. 1128-1130); and various specific files, such as the debt recovery case filed by the board of directors of the shipyard at Protestant Key in Christiansted against commander Munthe Morgenstierne 1806-1831 (no. 1134).

Finding Aids

A detailed catalogue is to be found in Enevældens Finansarkiver, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 23, Copenhagen 1996, pp. 186-215. See also the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 507-511.

Literature

See Harald Jørgensen, Finansforvaltningens Omdannelse i 1816. Bidrag til Centraladministrationens Historie under Frederik VI, in Historisk Tidsskrift, 10^th series, vol. 1, 1930-1931, pp. 191-209; Harald Jørgensen, Kollegiestyre og Ministervælde i Frederik VI’s Tid, in Smaaskrifter tilegnede Aage Friis, Copenhagen 1940, pp. 221-235, whose subject is the finance authorities 1813-1831; and Morten Westrup, Finansarkiverne 1679-1848, in Arkiv, vol. 13, 1990, pp. 148-163, which focuses on the period 1816-1848.

Other Financial Archives Before 1848

Also some of the other financial archives from before 1848 contain a few West Indian files. By way of example, mention is made of the Treasury 1769-1784, whose archives include a box of correspondence from the Central Bank Directorate concerning the West Indian debt 1782-1784 (no. 142).

Also worthy of mention is the Central Bank Directorate 1782-1813, whose archives include invoices and auction accounts, etc. 1782-1788 (9 archival units, nos. 45-52) concerning the cargoes of raw sugar imported by the Central Bank Directorate from St. Croix and sold in Denmark to raise money to pay government debts.

Another type of material can be found in the huge archives of various private and public pension funds. They total approximately 2700 archival units from fourteen different institutions from the 18^th century and the first half of the 19^th century and contain a lot of personal data.

Finally, the National Trust for the Arts and Sciences 1765-1842 is briefly mentioned. At first, this trust awarded extraordinary gratuities to deserving government officials, but, in time, the awards went to support science, art, and literature. Both types of files include a few concerning the Danish West Indies.

Finding Aids

The various financial archives are catalogued in detail in Enevældens Finansarkiver, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 23, Copenhagen 1996, pp. 39-47, 84-88 and 216-259. See also the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:1, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 473-475, 484-486 and 512-524.

Literature

Large parts of the archives of the National Trust for the Arts and Sciences are published in C. F. Bricka & Henny Glarbo, eds., Fonden ad usus publicos. Aktmæssige Bidrag til Belysning af dens Virksomhed, vols. 1-3, Copenhagen 1897-1947.

The Ministry of Finance 1848-(1917)

The Ministry of Finance arose out of the great administrative reform in 1848 and was given control of the entire central financial administration. This central new ministry took over all the cases of the Finance Commission and the Directorate for the National Debt and Sinking Fund; cases concerning direct taxation and lotteries from the Chamber of Revenue; and from the Chamber of Customs and Commerce, cases concerning indirect taxation (customs fees and taxes on consumption) and the West Indian colony. Postal and statistical authorities as well as various pension and insurance institutes were also transferred to the Ministry of Finance. The only real innovation in this sector in 1848 was the establishment of a State Accounting Office under the Ministry of Finance.

The Ministry of Finance was consequently very large, compared to the other ministries. Initially, it consisted of five departments, two general committees of decision, and three directorates. The Ministry’s size made the departments and directorates relatively independent.

The archives of the Ministry of Finance are immense, and it is hard to obtain an overall view. The following therefore treats only the sections that contain material of special relevance to West Indian affairs. The Customs Directorate is treated separately (see below).

The West Indies

As far as the West Indies are concerned, the most important of the Ministry of Finance directorates was the Central Directorate for the Colonies (see  the detailed archival catalogue), which was in charge of the central administration of the Danish West Indies, including not only financial affairs but practically all of the islands’ official business. The Central Directorate thus drew up proposals for appointments and dismissals of all government officials employed in the Danish West Indies, whether civilian or military. The Central Directorate for the Colonies was in sole charge of matters requiring decisions by the Minister of Finance or the king. Only appointments and dismissals of the Central Directorate’s own staff and audits of its accounts fell outside its competence. The Central Directorate for the Colonies was abolished on 1 April 1917, when the colony was ceded to the United States.

Thereafter, West Indian matters were handled by a West Indian Office under the Ministry’s First Department. This office was closed in 1920, and the remaining West Indian cases were transferred to the Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, which continued the phasing out of relations with the former Danish West Indies. The office kept up a special West Indian journal until 1933. At that time, the few remaining West Indian cases were transferred to the general journal of the Secretariat. Archival files from the West India Office 1917-1920 can be found among the files of the Secretariat.

In 1848, the Assignation Office of the Ministry of Finance took over the responsibilities of the corresponding office of the Finance Commission, i.e. assignating orders concerning income and expenses. Current payment orders for government officials were entered into so-called regulations, i.e. registers listing each payee and his salary, pay rises, pay withheld, special fees, etc. There is, for example, a separate regulation for West Indian pensions that shows the pensioners and their pension rates 1879-1893 (1 vol.). It is possible to find similar information scattered around the many accounts and other bookkeeping material of the Assignation Office.

Assignations were handled in close cooperation with the State Accounting Office, which booked all government revenue and expenditure, and with the Treasury, through which passed all payments received and made by the state treasury. The Treasury’s revenue included various indirect taxes, including West Indian revenues.

The Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance handled important cases concerning central finance administration, ministerial staff matters, budgetary matters, and appropriations accounts. In the Secretariat’s extensive archives, some cases are filed by journal number, while others are filed according to subject. The latter, from the period 1848-1917 (a total of 874 boxes), includes a list of all state-owned property in Denmark, the Nordic dependencies, and the Danish West Indian dominions in 1855 (box no. 295); documents concerning West Indian coinage 1850-1868 (box no. 326); documents concerning West Indian stamps, the case of the Danish West Indian note-issuing bank, and a supplementary appropriation for the West Indies 1913-1917 (box no. 876); and further documents concerning West Indian stamps and the so-called West Indian stamp case 1917-1947 (box no. 877). It should also be noted that the Secretariat’s thematically sorted files include a few relevant confidential files (box no. 856). By way of example, Permanent Secretary Andreas Christian Schlichtkrull’s official archives – Schlichtkrull was head of the Central Directorate for the Colonies – includes a folder of 15 unjournalised letters from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Minister of Finance in the period February-March 1917 concerning the cession of the islands to the United States.

The Ministry of Finance controlled government payrolls and pensions. West Indian pay roll and pension files are to be found among the many documents of the Pensions Office. In 1909, a special Widows’ Pensions Office was split off from the Pensions Office. Its archives include a box of undated files concerning the Danish West Indies (box no. 194). In 1909, the cases of the former Directorate for the Care of Disabled Persons were taken over by the Assignation and Bookkeeping Office of the Ministry of Finance. The welfare cases and payments include, in file group 352, three boxes containing files of pension payments to about ten former government officials and their widows, the last of whom lived until 1962.

A separate group in the Ministry of Finance’s archives consists of committee and commission archives, two of which deserve mention.

One of these is the archives of the Commission of 28^th December 1878 (one box) 1878-1879, concerning the rebellion on St. Croix. Poor social conditions and low wages caused the black workers to rebel, sections of Frederiksted and several plantations were burnt down, and many people lost their lives. The conditions of the working-class population did not change much, however. The Commission’s report, submitted the year after the uprising, is to be found under the title Betænkning afgiven til Finansministeriet af den i Anledning af Oprøret paa St. Croix i Oktober 1878 udnævnte kongelige Kommission, published in Rigsdagstidende, afdeling A, 1879-1880, Copenhagen 1879, columns 1441-1532.

The other group is the archives of the West India Commission of 18^th November 1902, 15 archival units in total. Of these, the following deserve special mention, viz. the minute-book (vol. 1), the interrogation records (vol. 2), a journal with journal files (archival units 6-8), and finally a substantial quantity of books, periodicals and newspapers (boxes 11-14). The Commission was appointed after the failure of an effort to sell the Danish West Indies to the United States of America. Its task was to examine what could be done to improve the islands’ economy, social welfare, and health care. The Commission’s voluminous report is printed as a book entitled Betænkning over Forholdene paa de Dansk-Vestindiske Øer, Copenhagen 1903.

Finding Aids

These two commission archives are catalogued in detail in Koloniernes Centralbestyrelse, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 20, Copenhagen 1976, pp. 104-105. See also the surveys of the Ministry’s archives in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. II:1, Copenhagen 1991, pp. 329-415.

Literature

In addition to the general works on the central administration and its history, see Hans Bjarne, Finansforvaltningen i Staten. Bidrag til Kendskabet til Finansforvaltningens, Finanslovgivningens og Finanskontrollens Historie, Opgaver og Organisation, Copenhagen 1934, which focuses on the first decades of the 20^th century. The preceding period is treated in Albert Olsen, Studier over den danske Finanslov 1850-1864, Copenhagen 1930. The most recent general description is Poul Erik Olsen, Finansforvaltningen 1814-1848, in Leon Jespersen et al., eds., Dansk forvaltningshistorie, vol. 1, Copenhagen 2000, pp. 405-430, and Finansministeriet 1848-1901, pp. 575-616. A more narrow aspect is treated in Poul Erik Olsen, Statsrevisorerne 1850-1975, in Kirsten Brandt & Hanne Rasmussen, eds., Statsrevisorerne 150 år, Copenhagen 2001, pp. 8-105.

The Customs Directorate 1848-(1917)

Generaltolddirektoratet 1848-(1917)

From 1848 on, the customs service belonged directly under the Minister of Finance, but in 1855 a special Customs Directorate was established under the Ministry. In the period 1865-1902, the Customs Directorate was also responsible for taxation.

The West Indies

The archives of the Customs Directorate are rather extensive and difficult to orient oneself in. West Indian cases are mostly filed according to journal number, so one has to go via the journals to find the files themselves. Certain cases, however, are filed by subject. This applies, for example, to the large group of thematically sorted customs cases 1813-1926. Among these are four boxes with the following designations: West Indian Warehouse 1845-1864 (box 4,161); Payments to soldiers dismissed from the West Indian military forces 1885 and 1908 (box 4,162); On discrepancies between West Indian transires and the goods found on special inspection during unloading 1848-1868 (box 4,163); and Customs duty on produce from the Danish West Indies 1916-1919 (box 4,164).

Finding Aids

See the summary surveys in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. II:1, Copenhagen 1991, pp. 383-398.

Literature

See the literature mentioned above under the Ministry of Finance.

The State Assets Administration 1848-(1917)

Statsaktivforvaltningen 1848-(1917)

State assets are the wealth of a country, particularly its outstanding debt. This field of authority covers primarily the management of funds borrowed from the State.

The West Indies

Of particular relevance to the Danish West Indies is the State Assets Office, from 1909 on entitled the First State Assets Office. Its filing practice involved various journals, of which the A-journal, including indexes, has most relevance. The associated A-cases are filed either by journal number or in a thematically sorted series of what are called XX-cases. West Indian cases are therefore to be found scattered among the A-cases and in a special subgroup of XX-cases, designated cases concerning the Danish West Indies 1851-1905. This last XX-group comprises 79 boxes, consecutively numbered, beginning with box 203XX. No catalogue has been made, but the greater part of material appears to be accounting documents concerning the St. Croix Cooperative Sugar Factory. The contents of some of these West Indian cases are journalised in journal A, but most of the documents are unjournalised appendixes. It is therefore rather difficult to obtain an overall view of this series and to work with it. The thematically sorted A-cases include, under no. 282, material concerning the botanical research station on Estate La Grange on St. Croix 1896-1929; under no. 283, material on government estates in the Danish West Indies; and under no. 284, material on the Danish West Indian Commission of 1916, viz. its minute-book and various correspondence, etc. from 1916.

Finally, it should be noted that the archives of the local West Indian State Assets Administration 1849-1910 have been preserved (see West Indian local archives).

Finding Aids and Literature

See the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. II:4, Copenhagen 1991, pp. 1770-1794. See also the literature mentioned above under the Ministry of Finance.

The Administration for the Management of the National Debt 1848-(1917)

Statsgældsforvaltningen 1848-(1917)

In 1848, the Ministry of Finance took over the administration of the national debt from the Directorate for the National Debt and Sinking Fund. The national debt management fell to two offices: one was the National Debt Office, also designated the Second National Debt Office, which handled transactions, payment orders, and bookkeeping concerning the national debt; while the other was the Office of Foreign Payments, also designated the First National Debt Office.

The West Indies

The archives of the National Debt Office include a special historical collection of documents going back to 1784, which really belong in the financial archives from before 1848. The historical collection includes material on the Dutch loans 1784-1794; a collection of credit certificates in the form of West Indian two-dollar and ten-dollar notes; and a third-party guarantee dated 1896 concerning a ship named "Janet Court", which had been seized and taken to St. Thomas. Of particular West Indian interest is a list of persons entitled, in 1854, to compensation for slaves manumitted in the Danish West Indies.

The archives of the Office of Foreign Payments include, among the thematically sorted journal files, miscellaneous files concerning the Danish West Indies c. 1840-1930; from the Immigration Foundation for St. Croix, journal 1906, ledger 1906, and a list of effects; from the St. Croix Colonial Treasury’s Reserve Fund, a book of effects (1 vol.); and from the St. Thomas Colonial Treasury’s Reserve Fund, a book of effects (1 vol.).

Finding Aids and Literature

See the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. II:4, Copenhagen 1991, pp. 1794-1800. See also the literature mentioned above under the Ministry of Finance.

The Danish West Indies National Bank 1904-1934

Den Dansk-Vestindiske Nationalbank 1904-1934

After the bankruptcy of the Bank of St. Thomas in 1898, the Danish West Indies had no Danish bank. In 1904, the Danish West Indies National Bank was established, financed by a consortium of major Danish banks. The mission of the new independent bank was to further an economic upswing on the islands. The means were to be ordinary banking and lending transactions against security in real estate. In addition, the Bank was granted a 30-year monopoly on note-issuing on the three islands. At the launch of the Bank, a reform of the colonial monetary system introduced the franc, which was set to equal 0.2 West Indian dollars. The Danish West Indies National Bank had its headquarters in Charlotte Amalie.

The cession of the Virgin Islands to the United States in 1917 did not change the Bank’s concession, and Danish notes continued to be the official currency. Not until the expiration of the monopoly in 1934 did the Bank close down; the Virgin Islands then adopted the American monetary system.

The archives of the Danish West Indies National Bank comprise 90 archival units from the period 1880-1939. The material includes a minute-book of general meetings including appendixes 1906-1939 (5 archival units), the minute-book of the bank committee and its letter copybook 1904-1939 (5 archival units), and the journal of the chairman of the bank committee 1904-1930 (1 vol.). The archives also include various boxes of thematically sorted cases, such as balances (3 boxes), staff (2 boxes), Bethlehem (2 boxes), and St. Thomas Ice Factory (1 folder) – as well as some photographs of the bank premises and the islands in general.

Finding Aids

See the survey in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. II:4, Copenhagen 1991, pp. 1737-1739.

Literature

See the comments scattered in the general literature on the history of the Danish West Indies. See also (at the library of the Danish National Bank and in the Collection of Pamphlets at the Royal Library) the published annual reports entitled Beretning om den Dansk-Vestindiske Nationalbanks Virksomhed, Copenhagen 1905-1937, and published monthly balances and annual accounts for various years 1905-1937.