Untitled - OUDL Home

Russia on the Baltic had immediate and long-continuedeconomic and strategic consequences. On the one hand,the rapid expansion of Russian trade was a goldenopportunity for British and Dutch skippers, which inthe almost complete absence of a Russian merchantmarine they utilized to the full throughout the eighteenthcentury. On the other hand, the creation of a Russiannavy, however technically inferior the sea-going fleet wasto the Swedish, Danish, or British, transformed thebalance in the Baltic owing to Russia's command ofenormous resources in naval material and munitions andto Peter's novel employment of galley fleets on a largescale. Already in his lifetime Russia on the Baltic wasregarded by the British as an unpleasant novelty " whichwould disturb the world."In 1716 a British secretary of state could write: ''it isour misfortune at this juncture, by the knavery of theMuscovites . . ., to have our navall magazines so illprovided with stores, particularly with hemp, that if thefleet of merchant men, now lading in the Baltick, shouldby any accident miscarry, it will be impossible for hisMajesty to fitt out any ships of war for the next year, bywhich means the whole navy of England will be renderedperfectly useless. ..." The particular entanglementsof Great Britain with Russia during George I's reignwere due mainly to his North German interests aselector of Hanover, partly to Peter's harbouring ofJacobites; but in any event Great Britain was bound tobe deeply involved with Russia and the Baltic on accountof supplies for her navy and marine. These Balticsupplies were indispensable to her, and she was alsogreatly concerned to prevent them reaching her principalenemy France. The later history of the Anglo-Russiancommercial treaties of 1734 and 1766 and of the ArmedNeutrality of 1780 and 1800 bears telling enough witnessto the continued importance of timber and naval stores.The fear of a Danish closure of the Sound, backed byRussia and France, was one of the principal reasons forthe two British attacks on Copenhagen (1801, 1807).While most of the timber, except for the first-classRiga mast-pools, was supplied by Poland, Norway,267