The present monograph has grown out of a good many years of study of the history of the European trade to the East Indies. The starting-point actually was Danish. Having treated the history of the Danish Asiatic Company during the period 1732-1772 I went abroad in order to familiarize myself with the background to the reorganization of Danish trade about 1732. It was especially the possible connexion with the dissolved Ostend Company and the counter-measures, diplomatic as well as economic, of the Dutch, English, and French companies that interested me. Through these investigations I got acquainted with the various Northwest European company records and soon realized that the Dutch archives offered a rich material, especially as regards quantities and prices. A study on the Dutch Company's trade in Japanese copper, a subject which had previously occupied Scandinavian historians in con­ nexion with the question of the status of Swedish copper on the European market in the 17th century, amplified my knowledge of the archives in the Hague to such a degree that I dared to tackle the greater object of giving a description of the Company's trade as a whole during its heyday. On various points it proved to be necessary to make comparative in­ vestigations, especially in the English East India Company's archives in London.