Calendar of papers relating to the Swedish Africa Company RA 757-16-B-1 vol.42 (1649-1695)

The present volume provides English translations of the majority of papers in one (volume 42) of the surviving four boxes (vols 42 to 45) of material. These are, for the most part, not bound, but consist of loose folios collected in boxes. The headings in bold refer to these boxes and the titles written on them. In many cases, any original order appears already to have been disturbed before the papers reached the archive. The documents calendared here are therefore presented in the order in which they are currently arranged, not in strict chronological order. The largest body of material relates to the company’s active period between 1649 and 1663: correspondence from the Gold Coast; instructions to agents and commanders; accounts; memoranda; petitions and diplomatic papers concerning disputes with the Dutch, Danes and English. There are also later papers concerning Swedish claims for compensation from the Dutch Republic, and the winding-up of the company’s affairs. Not all of the surviving material has been included in the present volume. Several folders containing documents from the period after the effective collapse of the company up until 1717 have not been calendared. These later papers appear largely to consist of accounts and (voluminous) papers relating to the attempts of individual investors in the company to recover money. This calendar will be of use to anyone interested in this fascinating and neglected footnote in the history of Europe’s plunder of the West African coast. The decision has been made to present the material in English translation as the language most widely-accessible to modern researchers. This will hopefully prove as convenient for Swedish researchers as any other, given that the originals are, more often than not, in languages other than Swedish, i.e. Dutch, German, French, Latin, English and Irish.