The Chamber of Revenue 1754-1760

Rentekammeret 1754-1760

The Chamber of Revenue in general is treated in Chapter 8. The following discussion is confined to the Chamber’s West Indian affairs during the brief period 1754-1760, when the Chamber of Revenue was in charge of the central administration of the West Indian and Guinean colonies. This interval began with the gradual liquidation of the West India and Guinea Company 1754-1755 and ended in 1760 upon the formation of the Chamber of Customs.

On 13 May 1754, the Danish state took over all shares in the West India and Guinea Company and, by royal resolution on 28 November the same year, a separate West India and Guinea Office was established under the Chamber of Revenue. The entire archives of the Company were transferred to this office. The person who had been in charge of the day-to-day Company administration since 1728, Peter Mariager, also moved to the Chamber of Revenue and continued his work as manager of the newly established West India and Guinea Revenue Office. The new office actually began its work in the late summer of 1754, as can be seen from its journal, which commenced on 22 August that year. In 1760, Peter Mariager was transferred once more – with his responsibilities and West Indian archives – to the Chamber of Customs, where he worked until his death in 1764

Archives

The preserved archives of the Chamber of Revenue’s West India and Guinea Office 1754-1760 total 71 boxes and volumes. In the catalogue of the Chamber’s extensive archives, this office’s documents are classified as group no. 2249. A detailed catalogue of the whole of the Chamber of Revenue archives can be found in Jens Holmgaard, Rentekammeret I. Danske og norske afdelinger 1660-1848, Vejledende Arkivregistraturer, vol. 12, Copenhagen 1964, while a revised catalogue of the Chamber of Revenue’s West India and Guinea material can be found on this site

Almost half the West India and Guinea file group, i.e. the first 30 archival units, consists of source material characteristic of an office of the central administration: royal resolutions, letter copybooks, journal with journal files, and incoming letters. The rest of the file group consists of miscellanea organised by subject, such as the sugar refinery, the royal plantations on the islands, etc. Recently, the two accounting note books (Chamber of Revenue nos. 2249.70-2249.71) concerning accounts of civil servants 1755-1760 were moved from the Chamber of Customs’ archives to the Chamber of Revenue’s.

Literature

For literature on the Chamber of Revenue, see Finance. The Chamber of Revenue’s archives and their survival until today are described in Jens Holmgaard’s above-mentioned catalogue, pp. XVII-XLII.