Was it routine for local powers controlling one or more sides of a major strait to block or charge tolls on foreign shipping before the highly effective British blockades of the Napoleonic Wars and 7 Years War?
For example, I think I've heard the most specific stuff about the Danes charging a "sound toll" through the Danish straits, where they charged non-Danish shipping passing through. Nevertheless, they did not block foreign shipping from crossing the straits. For instance the Swedes were able to conduct Atlantic trade and establish colonial outposts beyond the Baltic, and the Dutch who were from outside the Baltic were able to dominate Baltic commerce.
Did England or France ever try to block or tax foreign shipping passing through the straits of Dover?
Did Spain or Morocco ever try to block or tax foreign shipping passing through the straits of Gibraltar?
What about the Neapolitans/Sicilians and the straits of Messina? Or the Normans during the periods they controlled Sicily and Tunis?
Piracy has long been a thing in the Bad al-Mandeb, straits of Hormuz and Straits of Molucca, but did it ever make those waters impassable in the age of sail?
If they did try to block others, did they succeed?
If they did not try it, why didn't they?
I ask this because in what ifs on the age of exploration, being an Atlantic state is considered a great advantage, and being on the wrong (eastern) side of the Danish straits or Gibraltar straits is considered a dealbreaker for any sustained colonial efforts by Courland, other Baltic states, or the Italian city-states.
I just don't know though how practical really was to block foreign shipping through straits (other than the very tight Bosporus and Dardanelles most of the time. I suspect that some of the arguments that "of course any Italian colonizers would be cut off at the straits of Gibraltar" or "you would have to fragment and nerf Spain for any Italian colonial enterprise to succeed", are based on an anachronistic, backward projection of what the British were able, and willing, to do under the uncommon circumstances of the Napoleonic Wars, WWI and WWII.
Your thoughts?
For example, I think I've heard the most specific stuff about the Danes charging a "sound toll" through the Danish straits, where they charged non-Danish shipping passing through. Nevertheless, they did not block foreign shipping from crossing the straits. For instance the Swedes were able to conduct Atlantic trade and establish colonial outposts beyond the Baltic, and the Dutch who were from outside the Baltic were able to dominate Baltic commerce.
Did England or France ever try to block or tax foreign shipping passing through the straits of Dover?
Did Spain or Morocco ever try to block or tax foreign shipping passing through the straits of Gibraltar?
What about the Neapolitans/Sicilians and the straits of Messina? Or the Normans during the periods they controlled Sicily and Tunis?
Piracy has long been a thing in the Bad al-Mandeb, straits of Hormuz and Straits of Molucca, but did it ever make those waters impassable in the age of sail?
If they did try to block others, did they succeed?
If they did not try it, why didn't they?
I ask this because in what ifs on the age of exploration, being an Atlantic state is considered a great advantage, and being on the wrong (eastern) side of the Danish straits or Gibraltar straits is considered a dealbreaker for any sustained colonial efforts by Courland, other Baltic states, or the Italian city-states.
I just don't know though how practical really was to block foreign shipping through straits (other than the very tight Bosporus and Dardanelles most of the time. I suspect that some of the arguments that "of course any Italian colonizers would be cut off at the straits of Gibraltar" or "you would have to fragment and nerf Spain for any Italian colonial enterprise to succeed", are based on an anachronistic, backward projection of what the British were able, and willing, to do under the uncommon circumstances of the Napoleonic Wars, WWI and WWII.
Your thoughts?