Colin Campbell

Colin Campbell was a Scottish merchant who co-founded the Swedish East India Company and became the first Swedish royal envoy to China. Colin was born in Edinburgh in a family of a lawyer who claimed to be of the noble background. In the beginning of his career Colin was involved in hazardous investments in the South Sea Bubble which resulted with his indebtedness and escape, first to Osterand in Belgium, and afterwards to Stockholm and Gothenburg in Sweden. In Gothenburg he spent the rest of his life, living as a Swedish citizenship and gaining noble status. Campbell was one of the initiators of the Swedish East India Company that was founded in 1730 and he served as its director from 1731 until his death. Moreover, he was named the first Swedish envoy to the Emperor of China in history. The wealth he earned Campbell used to return his debts and to live in abundance.