Uninterrupted economic relations between England and Scandinavia were of vital importance to the maintenance and extension of the British Empire in the eighteenth century. Scandinavia supplied Britain with the timber to build her ships, with iron for ship-fittings, armaments and industry, and with smuggled tea at low prices to keep her people content. Scandinavia also furnished merchant fleets as neutral carriers for British goods during the Seven Years War, thus fundamentally assisting Britain's war effort. In addition she represented a small but lucrative market for Britain who was herself the largest single market for Sweden and Norway, and for the tea obtained from China by the Scandinavian East India Companies. In this study, Dr Kent examines the organization and extent of the legitimate and the smuggling trades, the effect of war and neutrality upon them, and the legal and diplomatic considerations which influenced economic enterprise and policies.
