Compagnie de Chine (1660-1664)

French trading company

For other ventures of the same name, see Compagnie de Chine.

The Compagnie de Chine was a short-lived French trading company, established in 1660 by the Catholic society Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement and merged in 1664 into Louis XIV's East India Company.

## Overview

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The Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement established the China Company in order to dispatch missionaries to Asia (initially Bishops François Pallu, Pierre Lambert de la Motte and Ignace Cotolendi of the newly founded Paris Foreign Missions Society).[1] The company was modelled on the Dutch East India Company.[2]

A ship was built in the Netherlands by the shipowner Fermanel, but the ship foundered soon after being launched.[3] The only remaining solution for the missionaries was to travel on land, since Portuguese ships refused to embark non-Padroado missionaries, and Dutch and British ships refused to take Catholic missionaries at all.[4]

In 1664, the China Company was merged by Jean-Baptiste Colbert with the Compagnie d'Orient and Compagnie de Madagascar into the Compagnie des Indes Orientales.[5]

## See also

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* Companies portal

* Compagnie de la Chine (1698-1719)
* List of French colonial trading companies

## Notes

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1. ^ Mantienne, p.28
2. ^ Asia in the Making of Europe, p.232
3. ^ Mantienne, p.28
4. ^ Missions, p.4
5. ^ In 1642, Rigault, captain of the navy, founded with nine partners the "Compagnie Françoise de l'Orient" "Les compagnies de commerce et Madagascar". Retrieved 2020-11-30.

## References

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* Mantienne, Frédéric 1999 Monseigneur Pigneau de Béhaine Eglises d'Asie, Série Histoire, ISSN 1275-6865 ISBN 2-914402-20-1
* Missions étrangères de Paris. 350 ans au service du Christ 2008 Editeurs Malesherbes Publications, Paris ISBN 978-2-916828-10-7