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The history of the Royal Greenland Trade Department

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Aage V. Strøm Tejsen
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Extract

The English explorer Martin Frobisher rediscovered Greenland in 1578, during his third attempt to find a route north of America to the East Indies, and John Davis's subsequent expeditions in 1585-87 established contact with the Eskimos in Greenland. Christian IV, King of Denmark-Norway, fitted out three ships for Greenland in 1605 with the Englishman John Cunningham as commander and the Danish nobleman Godske Lindenow as second-incommand, but he lost interest when no valuable minerals were found. He did, however, reestablish the sovereignty of the Danish crown over Greenland, and thus laid the foundation for later colonization by Denmark.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 18 , Issue 116 , May 1977 , pp. 451 - 474
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 From approximately 1700 to 1873 the Danish monetary units were the rigsdaler, the mark, and the skilling. The rigsdaler corresponded with 6 mark, and the mark with 16 skilling. In 1873 the units were changed to kroner and øre, 2 kroner corresponding with 1 rigsdaler, and 1 kroner with 100 øre. Nowadays 1 rigsdaler would be worth approximately 0.2 kroner.