Privateering and Diplomacy, 1793–1807

This book addresses the British-Danish diplomatic debate on privateering and neutral ports in the period 1793-1807, when Denmark-Norway remained neutral in the war between Britain and France. The British government protested against the use French privateers made of Norwegian ports as bases for their attacks on the British Baltic Sea and Archangel Trades, but the Danish government insisted on keeping the ports open. This led to a running dispute on the relative rights and duties of belligerents and neutrals, but also on violations of the tentative agreement that the two governments reached in 1793. The three main chapters in the book address the principled debate on privateering and neutral ports; the central role played in the debate by the British diplomatic and consular representatives in Denmark-Norway; and privateering in practice. The final two chapters look at the impact of the Dutch change of sides in the war in 1795, and the development from the official closure of the Norwegian ports to privateers in 1799 until Denmark-Norway’s entry into the war on the side of France in 1807.

Atle L. Wold is Associate Professor of British Studies at the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is the author of Scotland and the French Revolutionary War, 1792-1802 (2015).