Danegeld

“ With Russia, Norway and France (in this order) general trade is less important, but still large. A considerable proportion of Denmark’s large commercial fleet is engaged in the carrying trade between foreign, especially British, ports.
Under a law of the 4th of May 1907 it was enacted that the metric system of weights and measures should come into official use in three years from that date, and into general use in five years.
Money and Banking.—The unit of the Danish monetary system, as of the Swedish and Norwegian, is the krone (crown) , equal to 1s. ”

“ As populations increase and push forward from all sides, there is a natural interchange of influence. That southern Sleswick, originally Danish, thus became Germanized, is no wonder. German artisans found their way into Denmark and brought with them the customs of their guilds; and the language of Danish artisans to-day is clearly marked by this influence. During the flourishing period of the Hanseatic towns German trade found fertile soil in Denmark, and Danish economic life was in many ways dependent on Hamburg. ”

“ After the reorganization of Europe by the treaties of 1814 and 1815, Denmark was obliged to cede Norway to Sweden, as an equivalent for Pomerania, which province Denmark had received from Sweden, and which in 1815 she made over to Prussia, in exchange for the duchy of Lauenburg and a large sum of money. Serious complications, caused in part by the fact that Denmark by the possession of Holstein and Lauenburg became a member of the German confederation, now arose between the crown and the duchies. ”

“ The Danes took innumerable prizes and crippled the commerce of the Hanseatic cities. General Wrangel thereupon exacted a contribution of 2,000,000 thalers in Jutland. For every fisherman's hut that the Danish fleet might injure on the German coast, he Foreign Powers intervene threatened to lay a Danish village in ashes. The foreign Powers objected to such ruthless campaigning. The Scandinavian States intervened on behalf of Denmark. Emperor Nicholas of Russia, who regarded the Schleswig-Holstein movement as an unjustifiable rebellion, came to their support. ”

“ In ancient times no money was coined in Denmark. Trade consisted, it is true, in a great degree, of exchange, but there were many instances in which it was necessary to have a kind of circulating medium. Instead of coins, pieces of silver and gold were used, which were cut off either from rings or bars, and passed according to their weight. Most commonly they made use of ring-silver, or of pieces of many different broken rings. It was not till about the year 1000, that King Svend Tveskiæg, the father of the Dano-Anglish King Cnut began to coin money in Denmark. ”

“ The neutrality of Denmark during the World War created for her unique economic opportunities. There was a great demand for goods which she had on hand or could readily procure. Shrewd merchants and manufacturers recognized their opportunity, and in a very short time many of them made large fortunes. But this was not to the advantage of the majority. In the eager race to purchase the commodities which Denmark was able to deliver, prices rose and the populace was in danger of serious privation. ”

“ Denmark has always given a hearty welcome to moneyed immigrants. Schimmelmann, moreover, possessed financial ability, and made himself useful in a moment of distress. He made a deal of money out of government, and bought two estates near Hamburg of the crown, and that of Lindenburg, in Jütland, which was raised into a barony. He spent the summer at Hamburg, with the title of plenipo. to the states of Lower Saxony, and in winter went to Copenhagen, where he dabbled in financial operations. ”

“ But by a defensive alliance with Russia, Prussia, and Sweden in 1801, Denmark involved herself in a quarrel with England, suffered severely in the naval battle off Copenhagen, and lost her colonies in the East and West Indies, which were restored to her, however, by the treaty of peace which followed. In 1807, when England suspected Denmark of entering into an alliance with Napoleon, an English fleet was sent to the Baltic to compel the surrender of the entire Danish navy. ”

“ Denmark is a net exporter of food and energy and enjoys a comfortable balance of payments surplus. Government objectives include streamlining the bureaucracy and further privatization of state assets. The government has been successful in meeting, and even exceeding, the economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase (a common European currency) of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) , but Denmark has decided not to join 12 other EU members in the euro ”

“ For the Danes thought that the men to whom they pretended to have offered riches ought to be punished with sword and slaughter. Let them therefore feel that they were only giving the enemy a weapon if they seized what he had scattered. For if they were caught by the look of the treasure that had been exposed, they must lose, not only that, but any of their own money that might remain. What could it profit them to gather what they must straightway disgorge? But if they refuse to abase themselves before money, they would doubtless abase the foe. ”

“ The possession of the Sound enabled her to close the Baltic against the Western powers; the possession of Norway carried along with it the control of the rich fisheries which were Danish monopolies, and therefore a source of irritation to England and Holland. Denmark, moreover, was above all things a Scandinavian power. While the territorial expansion of Sweden in the near future was a matter of necessity, Denmark had not only attained, but even exceeded, her natural limits. Aggrandizement southwards, at the expense of the German empire, was becoming every year more difficult ”

“ Sweden too was now in open revolt; and both Norway and Denmark were taxed to the uttermost to raise an army for the subjection of the sister kingdom. Foreign complications were now superadded to these domestic troubles. With the laudable object of releasing Danish trade from the grinding yoke of the Hansa, and making Copenhagen the great emporium of the north, Christian had arbitrarily raised the Sound tolls and seized a number of Dutch ships which presumed to evade the tax. ”

“ With EC accession in January 1973, Denmark will inevitably be drawn into the West European orbit with as yet indeterminate effect on Nordic cooperation. The common Nordic labor market, for example, must now make allowances for Danish commitments and responsibilities within the EC labor market. As Denmark's economic inevitably integrates more closely with that of West Germany, old political antagonisms toward its large southern neighbor may more rapidly be put to rest. ”

“ And the Danes have prospered enormously since the war. Many people have become millionaires through the sale of food and other supplies to the Germans. A great deal of this food supply was sent in the form of canned meat, popularly known as goulash, and so to-day whenever an automobile passes on a Danish road, the small boys call out "goulash Baron," in the belief that the occupant is a new-made millionaire, enriched by trade with Germany.
It is hard for us to realise how far north the Scandinavian countries lie. ”

“ Europe In the post-World War II period the Danes have shown some ambivalence in their relationship to their fellow Europeans. A politically and economically unified Europe is an enticing prospect, and yet for small, proud, prosperous Denmark the practical consequences of being part of such a Goliath are a cause for some doubt. For the Danes European economic integration is more attractive than political union, for Denmark must trade to live. ”

“ All their fine speeches went for nothing when it came to the test, and King Christian rode back to Denmark, a sadder and wiser man. It was left to Gustav Adolf, after all, to teach the German generals the lesson they needed.
In the years of peace before that unhappy war, Danish trade and Danish culture had blossomed exceedingly, thanks to the wisdom, the clever management, and untiring industry of the King. He built factories, cloth-mills, silk-mills, paper-mills, dammed the North Sea out from the rich marshlands with great dikes, taught the farmers profitable ways of tilling their fields ”

“ There was a constant danger that the King of Denmark would increase the tax imposed upon the cargoes of all foreign vessels passing into or out of the Baltic, while the Hanse communities south of Denmark were always seeking to deprive the Russia Company of the right of way in the northern seas. ”

“ The constitutional theory of the Folkething is that of one member for every 16,000 inhabitants. The Faeröe islands, which form an integral part of the kingdom of Denmark in the wider sense, are represented in the Danish parliament, but not the other dependencies of the Danish crown, namely Iceland, Greenland and the West Indian islands of St Thomas, St John and St Croix. The budget is considered by the Folkething at the beginning of each session. The revenue and expenditure average annually about £4,700,000. ”

“ Every day Christian must have dismounted his horse some hundred pounds poorer than when he mounted; and yet the eye could detect no flaw in this precious saddle by the absence of a single pearl. It struck me at the time as being very astonishing that, a small kingdom like Denmark, and not a rich one, could find a surplus revenue sufficient to collect such immensity of wealth, and the resources of the country not flag by its useless accumulation. Why, the sale of all the jewellery, and gold, and silver in the castle of Rosenberg would pay off half the national debt of Denmark. ”

“ The large importation of coal, minerals and metals, and goods made from them is likewise caused by the natural poverty of the country in these respects.
Denmark carries on its principal import trade with Germany, Great Britain and the United States of America, in this order, the proportions being about 30, 20 and 16% respectively of the total. Its principal export trade is with Great Britain, Germany and Sweden, the percentage of the whole being 60, 18 and 10. ”

“ Sweden gave back the province of Trondhjem and the isle of Bornholm and released Denmark from the most onerous of the obligations of the treaty of Roskilde. In fact the peace of Copenhagen came as a welcome break in an interminable series of disasters and humiliations. Anyhow, it confirmed the independence of the Danish state. On the other hand, if Denmark had emerged from the war with her honour and dignity unimpaired, she had at the same time tacitly surrendered the dominion of the North to her Scandinavian rival. ”

“ In modern times the value of Danish commerce greatly increased, being doubled in the last twenty years of the 19th century, and exceeding a total of fifty millions sterling. The value of export is exceeded as a whole by that of import in the proportion, roughly, of 1 to 1.35. By far the most important articles of export may be classified as articles of food of animal origin, a group which covers the vast export trade in the dairy produce, especially butter, for which Denmark is famous. The value of the butter for export reaches nearly 40% of the total value of Danish exports. ”

“ Various attempts were also made to improve trade and industry by abolishing the still remaining privileges of the Hanseatic towns, by promoting a wholesale immigration of skilful and well-to-do Dutch traders and handicraftsmen into Denmark under most favourable conditions, by opening up the rich fisheries of the Arctic seas, and by establishing joint-stock chartered companies both in the East and the West Indies. Copenhagen especially benefited by Christian IV.’s commercial policy. ”

“ For trading purposes Greenland is monopolized by the Danish government; its Esquimaux and mixed population amount to about 7000 souls. About 1000 Danes reside constantly there for the purpose of conducting the trade, which consists almost exclusively in the exchange of European goods for oil and the skins of seals, reindeer, and a few other animals. ”

“ At the very start the war afforded Denmark considerable economic advantages. The shipping trade appeared extremely prosperous, in spite of great losses in tonnage, and the agricultural population at once realized large profits, for instance, by the sale of their horses. ”

“ Until about the close of the 18th century the commerce of Denmark was oppressed by legislative enactments which tended more to the immediate emolument of the crown than to the general prosperity and wealth of the kingdom. ”

“ Denmark, on the contrary, is the paradise of the system supposed to be opposed to free trade—that system under which the artisan and the farmer are permitted to combine their efforts—and the consequence is seen in the increase of population, in the growth of wealth and freedom, in the growing value of land, in the increasing tendency to equality, and in the strength of its government, as exhibited in its resistance of the whole power of Northern Germany during the late Schleswig-Holstein war, and as afterward exhibited toward those of its own subjects who had aided in bringing on the war. ”

“ With such feelings, it is not surprising that the Danes, collectively and individually, made so many sacrifices for their king and country during the late war with Holstein, or rather with the Prussian and other German troops who were sent to assist the revolted subjects of the King of Denmark. It is not surprising that gay and fashionable ladies offered their costly jewels, and poor old women, the impoverished descendants of ancient families gone to decay, sent the small remnants of their treasured valuables to be turned into money to assist in the expenses of the war. ”