page_title: William Duntzfelt
section_title: Career in Denmark
hierarchical_section_title: William Duntzfelt / Career in Denmark
caption_attribution_description: English: Christian Vilhelm Duntzfelt, aka William Duntzfelt (1762-1809), Danish merchant
context_page_description: William Duntzfelt was a Danish merchant and ship-owner.
context_section_description: Duntzfelt visited Denmark in 1788 and married the daughter of the wealthy merchant Frédéric de Coninck on the Dronninggård estate in July 1790. He briefly returned to Danish East India but settled permanently in Copenhagen from February 1791. He became a managing partner in the firm Pingel, Meyer, Prætorius & Co. which had been initiated by his father-in-law in 1787 as a replacement for the Baltic African Company. Duntzfelt also established his own trading house that traded on Rast India. He was granted citizenship (borgerskab) as merchant (grosserer) in 1795 and, in 1796, Duntzfelt and de Coninck decided to dissolve the consortium and transfer the activities to their personal firms. He was also active as a banker and in the market for insurrances. François le Chevalier and Johannes Søbøtker joined his firm as partners in 1799 and 1804.
  At the turn of the century, Duntzfelt was the largest ship-owner in the Nordic countries. He had profited immensely from Denmark's neutrality but many of his ships were still captured by English and French privateers and subsequently confiscated by court order. Duntzfelt & Co.'s losses from British confiscations alone was estimated at £144,660. He also suffered great losses during the war with England and the 1807 bombardment of Copenhagen.
  Duntzfelt was a member of the managing board of Speciebanken from 1796 and of Depositokassen from 1799. He was a member of Grosserersocietetet's governing body from 1802.
caption: William Duntzfelt
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