If everything is working, and everyone involved has the ability to hold their nose, triangular trade can be very profitable. The seedy side of capitalism here is not just the slavery but also the fact that the profits stayed private, but when the losses came it was to Denmark while the profiteer absconded. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Early stamps from isolated colonies often have wild variations as the local postmaster had to improvise while his stamp printer was thousands of miles away. The variations were real and not concocted for collectors. This stamp was supposed to be the end of that as it was printed in greater numbers and conformed to the then new universal postal union. Distance was still great and again there were local surcharges of this issue. In 1905, there was a new currency, so the whole process started again with a new stamp issue.
Todays stamp is issue A5, a one cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of the Danish West Indies in 1900. It was a 2 stamp issue with further denominations coming in 1902. My stamp is the early version in the lowest value with no surcharges. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $3 whether mint or used. A stamp with the later overprint and the frame of the stamp inverted is worth $900 used.
Saint Thomas was first settled by the Danes in 1668 with only about half of those setting out making it there. Most of them were convicts and ex prostitutes. It was an undertaking of a private company The Danish West India-Guinea company. The idea was to trade molasses and rum from Denmark with Africans at Christianborg Castle in present day Ghana, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/08/22/gold-coast-1948-christianborg-castle-is-readied-for-its-last-turnover/ , in return for African slaves. They were imported to the Danish West Indies and employed on sugar cane plantations run by mainly Jewish planters affiliated with the company. The sugar cane was then taken to Denmark and sold on and taxed from a company warehouse in Copenhagen, completing the triangle. With slave labor the profits were high but there were frequent large losses when a ship was lost to hurricanes or piracy.
After a run of bad luck the company was seized for nonpayment of taxes and the Danish West Indies became a Danish Crown Colony. The leader of the company, Frederik Bargum, had absconded Denmark the year before. As we have seen on so many colonial stamps the end of slavery saw the whole economic system collapse. Denmark banned the importation of new slaves in 1804 and all the slaves were freed in 1848 with the planters receiving compensation for the value of “their” slaves. Many now former slaves remained in place and took annual contracts to continue working the plantations. The plantation however was no longer seeing to food and housing and the freed slaves situation deteriorated and the productivity declined.
In the late 19th century Denmark was looking for a way out of the colony and approached the USA about buying it. When the USA seemed less than enthusiastic, Denmark created a triangle that worked and offered to sell the colony to Germany. Not wanting Germany to have it, The USA paid Denmark $25 million for what became the American Virgin Islands. They do not have their own stamps.
When all the ships arrived the triangle trade was very profitable. I mentioned above Frederik Bargum, the merchant who absconded Denmark leaving many bills. He also left behind the Yellow Palace, the first example of neoclassic architecture in Copenhagen. The house later served as a royal residence, most recently for Prince Valdemar until 1939.
Well this is a tough story to earn another drink out of. The triangle trade stunk to hell and the USA was obviously on the short end of the second triangle. Grasping at straws and still thirsty, I will toast neoclassic architecture as demonstrated by the Yellow Palace. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.