Indian textiles in seventeenth -and eighteenth- Century Denmark : trade and the rise of a global consumer culture

Abstract

Indian cotton textiles have been said to have both created a craze amongst consumers and paved the way for the industrial revolution in England in the eighteenth century. This thesis examines the volume of the Danish import trade of Indian cotton textiles in the period 1660-1806 as well as how the import trade changed character over time to comprise increasing amounts of white, untreated cotton textiles. The Danish trade in volume was far smaller than that of other European nations, but for certain years, each Dane had a larger quantity of Indian cottons available to them than any other. On the basis of the import trade, the work explores the levels of re-export as well as the Danish textile trade in the barter trade in West Africa. The network of merchants in Copenhagen who purchased large quantities of Indian cottons and their histories as well as involvement with cotton printing manufacturing has also been assessed, as these were essential in ensuring the continued Danish participation in global trade. The significance of the import of Indian cotton textiles to Denmark and its impact on Danish consumption and material culture has also been assessed to analyse how cotton textiles seeped into Danish society. To uncover the material heritage of cotton textiles in Danish history a number of cotton textiles with a believed provenience to the eighteenth century has also been included to exemplify Indian cotton imports as well as European production of cotton textiles. Thus the thesis bridges key concepts of global trade, merchant histories, consumption and material culture, analysis of historic cotton textile samples and production of cotton textiles in Danish history.