"The Kingdom of Denmark must have been intimidated by the wealth and strength of our country, which is why we sincerely invite Ambassador Pan to visit Copenhagen. Hey, such a small European country is very aware of current affairs and knows that it wants to tie up with our country. ”

The 2,400-ton sailing ship Blue Blade is sailing at the northern end of the Öresund Strait, and two thick chimneys behind the ship are constantly spewing out thick smoke, and the sea breeze blows two long black shadows in the blue sky.

Pan Guangfeng, the general representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qi in Europe, stood on the left side of the ship, breathing in the cold sea breeze and looking up at the blurred outline of the continent in the distance. Zuo Guihe, the captain of the "Qingfeng" next to him, enthusiastically accompanied him, saying flattering words, hoping to win the favor of this big man.

"Between countries, apart from interests, what kind of sincere feelings can there be? Tie-up? You're arrogant! Heh...... it's just taking advantage of each other. Pan Guangfeng showed a rather disapproving expression on his face, and shook his head with a smile, "Have we sailed into the Øresund Strait now?" Are you familiar with this area? ”

"Ambassador Pan, our ship has made several trips to the Baltic Sea, so we know a little bit about it. You see, on the west side of the strait is the Danish Helsingør Fortress, which has more than 3,000 soldiers stationed all year round, and has built more than 20 large and small forts, and laid more than 100 artillery pieces. ”

"What about the east side of the strait?"

"Oh, on the east side of the strait is a Swedish fortress with the name ...... Helsingør (i.e. Helsingborg). Zuo Guihe said with a smile: "However, although Sweden has built a fortress and laid artillery on the other side of the strait, they can't charge a penny of strait tolls. After all, the main channel of the strait is slightly closer to the Danish side, and it has been collected for three hundred years, so the merchant ships passing through here are still accustomed to handing over the money to the Danes. It seems that sixty or seventy years ago, the Kingdom of Sweden defeated Denmark in one fell swoop, not only seized a large part of Danish territory, but also forced the Danes to cancel the cost of passage for Swedish merchant ships through the strait. More than 20 years ago, Denmark, together with Prussia, Poland, and Russia, besieged Sweden and defeated it, reinstating the collection of tolls for Swedish merchant ships. ”

The Danes had reason to suspect that the two families might have a conspiracy against the Kingdom of Denmark, or a plan to divide the Baltic Sea.

To make matters worse, not long after the outbreak of the Qi-British War, the Kingdom of Sweden suddenly began to mobilize troops to gather in the border areas, which shocked the Danes into chaos and constantly asked for help from France, Prussia, Poland and other countries to stop the possible military invasion of Sweden.

Saxony and Poland were more active, and King August II was on the move, constantly encouraging the Polish parliament to send troops to attack Sweden under the threat of death.

Strangely enough, the Kingdom of Denmark was so dilapidated, but it was still able to guard the Øresund Strait and collect tolls for merchant ships, without being unanimously resisted by other countries.

In this situation, Denmark feels a real threat.

The Swedes made some kind of private deal with the Prussians, ceding the territory of West Pomerania to the Prussians in exchange for their neutrality in the war.

Therefore, the abolition of the Øresund toll is the common aspiration of all European countries.

Unexpectedly, the army of the Kingdom of Sweden was still strong, and after forcing the Russian army to Moscow, it turned around to meet the Saxony-Polish coalition army, and beat August II to a wolf, lost his division and lost his territory, and even let his family attack Poznan and end the capital of Poland, not to mention how embarrassed it was.

Sweden was originally a member of the Danish-Norwegian-Swedish confederation, and ships were not required to pay tolls to enter and exit the Øresund.

Seeing this, the Danes were immediately silent, and politely refused the request of the Russians and Poles to send troops, and prepared to continue to wait and see.

The Kingdom of Sweden was the first to initiate toll fees on the Øresund.

Thus, in 1429, Eric of Pomerania (King Eric VII of Denmark), then co-lord of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (king of the Kalmar League), issued a decree that all non-Danish ships passing through the Øresund must dock at Kronburg, the most cutting-edge of Helsingør, to be inspected and pay taxes. Thus began a 300-year-long list of fees.

However, the Danish crown's vast wealth was a nuisance to other European countries that had to trade through the Øresund. The ships of these countries not only bear the natural risks of sea voyages, the cost of depreciation of the ships, the salaries of the sailors, etc., but also have to pay a large amount of tolls, while Denmark only needs to set up a cannon and reach for money, which is not easy.

In the following years, the Swiss army fought back and forth with the Russian army and the Saxony-Polish coalition army in the two theaters, and although the Russians and Poles suffered successive heavy blows and lost large territories, the Swiss army had limited forces and had not yet gained an overwhelming advantage.

You see, the Kingdom of England is behind us, it is a staunch ally of our Denmark, their navy is so great that I see who dares not to pay the tolls!

However, when the Kingdom of Sweden continued to issue various threats to Denmark with great fanfare, causing panic among the Danish royal family and the people, it suddenly turned around and invaded Russia, kicking off the Second Great Northern War.

Netherlands? Well, since the War of the Spanish Succession, the country has not been involved in the disputes of European affairs, and has only been bent on making money.

In other words, there is no entanglement between Denmark and Qi State, let alone substantive conflicts of interest and conflict. So is it possible to pay some price to pull Qi from the Swedish side and rely on it to provide strong reinforcements, so as to ensure Denmark's security?

However, when Denmark's national situation gradually began to decline, countries that were not accustomed to its blocking and charging behavior would inevitably have a different kind of thinking.

The natural waterways between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea are also the Great and Small Belts, but they are also controlled by Denmark, which is also a Danish inland sea. In order to prevent some ships from detouring, Denmark has also introduced a fee system in these straits.

This must be left by the side of Qi State, not to mention that it is to be occupied, then it is absolutely necessary to knock on the door, dismantle its toll booth, and then declare that this strait is free to pass without any restrictions.

The false alarm made the Danes breathe a long sigh of relief, and they couldn't help but keep drawing crosses on their chests, thanking God for his protection and God for his protection.

Prussia died down and remained neutral.

So, the Kingdom of England, which is relying on its arms, can't be counted on, and which thigh should the Kingdom of Denmark look for to hug?

Qi people!

Although the Kingdom of Denmark, as an ally of the Kingdom of England, had a skewed position during the Qi-Ying War, it did not have a direct armed conflict with the Kingdom of Qi.

Denmark is arguably the oldest monarchy in the world, with royal lineage dating back more than 800 years, which shows how strong the Danish monarchy is.

Yes, the value of your merchant ship cargo is declared less, and people directly buy it at this price, which makes you vomit blood at a loss.

However, due to the disparity in strength, in order to avoid retaliation from Sweden, Denmark actively engaged in diplomacy and established close relations with France, Prussia, Poland and other countries, in order to gain external solidarity and deter the Swedes.

At the same time, Denmark also threw itself into the arms of England, hoping to use the protection of Europe's first maritime power to ensure its own safety and gain the endorsement of European powers for their collection of Øresund tolls.

The royal family has a large population and a luxurious life, which must require a lot of money, but the main economic income of the Danish royal family comes from the collection of foreign ships, which greatly reduces the burden on the country's finances, and correspondingly reduces the degree of looting and exploitation of the people, which can be regarded as alleviating social contradictions to a certain extent, or transferring the contradictions to foreign ships passing by.

In the past, when the Kingdom of Denmark was strong, it was natural to lie down and collect money with peace of mind, and whoever dared to disagree would beat him, so arrogant that he didn't want it.

Sometimes, in order to save trouble, Denmark has also frequently issued no-sail notices, restricting the use of the Great and Small Belt Strait by non-Danish ships, and requiring foreign ships to only allow passage through the Øresund.

However, in 1523, Sweden broke away from the Confederacy and became an independent state. As a result, Denmark regarded Swedish ships as foreign ships and began to levy tolls.

The Øresund Strait is the most important communication channel between the countries bordering the Baltic and North Seas, and countless ships from all countries pass and go.

However, unexpectedly, the thigh held by the Danish Kingdom was slashed by a distant Indian Ocean overlord, and the blood gushed out, and at a speed visible to the naked eye, the thigh became slender and less reliable.

France has only made a diplomatic reputation, but it has no intention of actively interfering.

However, the Danes did not relax their vigilance because Sweden changed its attack targets, but also began to reorganize their troops and actively prepare for war, preparing to take advantage of the opportunity of the Russian-Swedish war to see if they could continue to besiege Sweden by uniting several countries around the Baltic Sea as they did in the last Great Northern War.

This made the Dane look at it, and his scalp couldn't help but tighten.

Soon after, Saxony and Poland formed a coalition of more than 50,000 troops and marched north into Courland in the hope of saving the precarious situation in Russia.

However, the Kingdom of Denmark did not raise any objection to this, and it can be regarded as acquiescing in the behavior of the Qi people.

In the Battle of the Faroe Islands, the Battle of the Canary Islands, the Battle of Alvoran, and the Battle of the English Channel, the once powerful English Navy was defeated by Qi again and again, and suffered heavy losses. Not to mention providing armed protection for Denmark, even England itself was attacked and blockaded by the Qi State, and the situation was extremely bad.

The most glorious days of the Kingdom of Denmark have long since passed, and after the Great War in Europe (the Thirty Years' War) and the Swedish War for Supremacy, the kingdom has been weakened to the extreme. For a long time, they were struggling to survive by relying on major powers or riding the wall between various forces through diplomatic means.

The Holy Roman Empire fought again with the Ottomans, fighting in Serbia and Wallachia.

But when you look around, you find that several major European powers have little intention of doing anything.

As a result, the Kingdom of Denmark immediately sent an envoy to Amsterdam to invite Pan Guangfeng, the general representative of Qi to Europe, to visit Copenhagen.

At the northernmost and narrowest point of the Øresund Strait, at each end of the Øresund Strait, at a distance of only 4 kilometres from each other, there is a fortress named Helsingør. Until 1658, Denmark ruled both sides of the Strait, so the two fortresses belonged to the same city. When Sweden seized the eastern shore of the Øresund Strait through war, the fortress naturally became Helsingborg according to the Swedish pronunciation and writing.

How important is this independence? If you think of Charles I, the only king in the history of England to be executed, lack of money was one of the main reasons for his downfall. Charles I was worried about money all his life, and he did everything possible to increase the income of the royal family, while Parliament tried to restrain the king, and he arbitrarily taxed the people without the consent of Parliament, which eventually led to the English Civil War. As a result, after the defeat in the civil war, Charles I was beheaded.

The Danes came up with the idea of collecting tolls from ships passing through the country.

However, in June 1730, the Swiss army and the Saxony-Polish coalition army launched a large-scale battle in Riga, the wise and martial King Carl XII of Sweden led a light army to land from the flank of the coalition army, and then ran more than 100 kilometers, suddenly killed behind the coalition army, and broke the coalition army, almost replicating the classic battle of Narva thirty years earlier, and achieved a hearty victory.

By 1567, the Danes had set the toll on the Øresund at 1-2% of the value of the goods, tripling the initial amount. In order to prevent the captains from underreporting the value of the goods and paying less taxes, the Danes also came up with a detrimental trick, which was to reserve the right to buy the goods according to the value of the goods carried by the merchant ships.

The Øresund Strait is located between the Danish island of Zealand and the southernmost tip of Sweden in Scandinavia, connecting the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, roughly trending southeast to northwest, with a length of about 100 kilometers, 30 kilometers at its widest point, only 4 kilometers at its narrowest point, and a water depth of 12-28 meters.

"Heh, for so many years, apart from Sweden, no other European power has expressed dissatisfaction with Denmark's behavior of blocking the road and robbing it?" Pan Guangfeng sneered, feeling a little incredible.

As the country's power grew, Sweden began to challenge Denmark's Nordic hegemony and went to war with it several times. In the Second Northern War, the Swedish army invaded Copenhagen in 1658, forced Denmark to cede the provinces east of the Øresund Strait, and exempted Swedish ships from tolls in the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660, which was also the highlight of the Swedish Empire.

After the Swedes overthrow the Russians, there is a high probability that they will turn their guns and come to trouble our Kingdom of Denmark.

In order to avoid the Øresund Strait and pay less money, in 1621 Sweden established a new trading port city of Gothenburg on the coast of the Kattegat Strait north of the Øresund Strait.

In order to ensure that ships passing through the Øresund Strait obeyed orders, Denmark built batteries and erected cannons on both sides of the narrowest side of the strait, and ships that did not greet them would face shelling from both sides of the strait, and even risk being sunk.

For Denmark, the Øresund is a waterway flowing with gold, and the rolling Øresund tolls have become the most important income for the Danish royal family.

However, Sweden's privilege to be exempt from Øresund tolls did not last long. In 1720, Denmark joined the anti-Swedish alliance and fought against Sweden with many of its friends, and finally defeated Sweden, once again arrogantly imposing Tolls on Swedish ships in the Øresund.

Not to mention, the state of Qi did not even say hello, and occupied several islands of the Faroe Islands to which Denmark belonged without authorization during the war, seriously violating Danish territorial sovereignty.

The Swedes are really good at fighting!

Just when the Danes were so entangled and nervous, they received another piece of bad news.

England, uh, forget it, it is being beaten by the Qi people, the navy is losing consecutive wars, the Irish colonial territory is making a fuss, the Scotland next door is also starting to make trouble, and the American and Caribbean colonial territories are also being attacked by the Qi country, the whole is a chicken feather, and it has no time to take care of itself, how can it have the spare energy to manage the affairs of the Baltic Sea region.

The Øresund toll ensured that the Danish royal family would also have a great deal of independence vis-à-vis the Danish Privy Council and the Danish aristocracy.

The conditions given by the Danes were simple and more realistic, such as exempting Qi merchant ships from tolls in the Øresund Strait, fully opening up the Danish domestic market, taking the initiative to reduce import taxes on Qi goods, and allowing Qi naval warships to dock at Danish ports.

Well, seeing that we are so sincere, let's make friends.

(End of chapter)