Copenhagen Convention
The Copenhagen Convention, which came into force on 14 March 1857, abolished the dues and all Danish Straits were made international waterways free to all military and commercial shipping. It had been increasingly evident that the Sound Dues had a negative impact on the port and merchants of Copenhagen, although the dues delivered by then one eighth of the Danish state income; and the world's sea-using nations were becoming less and less tolerant of these tolls and restrictions. In compensation for the abolition, the Danish state received a one-time fee of 33.5 million Danish rigsdalers, paid to Denmark by the other European shipping nations who signed the Convention. Of the total fee, Great Britain paid approximately one third, and Russia another third. A similar convention between Denmark and the United States, signed in Washington the same year, gave American ships free passage in perpetuity for a one-time fee of $393,000.
Read more about this topic: Sound Dues
Famous quotes containing the word convention:
“The metaphor of the king as the shepherd of his people goes back to ancient Egypt. Perhaps the use of this particular convention is due to the fact that, being stupid, affectionate, gregarious, and easily stampeded, the societies formed by sheep are most like human ones.”
—Northrop Frye (b. 1912)