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...