Neutral convoys, blockade, and Baltic naval stores

Britain treated neutral convoys carrying French ships or goods as a practical threat to its blockade and prize-court system. British warships normally detained doubtful vessels and let prize courts decide whether ships or cargoes should be released. Denmark and other neutral powers instead claimed that their convoy protection should prevent British searches, even when French-flagged ships or French-bound goods were involved. The problem became more acute because Scandinavian naval stores were vital to British sea power. A league that could shelter enemy commerce, weaken the blockade, and restrict naval supplies was therefore not merely a legal argument about neutral flags. The passage also looks ahead to the later English Wars, when the danger that France might take or direct the Danish fleet again put British access to Baltic supplies at issue.