Denmark consists of the islands in the Baltic, and the peninsula lying in the north-west of Germany, comprizing Jutland, Sleswig, and Holstein.  The face of the country, both insular and continental, presents a striking contrast to that of Norway, being flat, and fertile in corn and cattle.  Denmark possesses a large extent of sea coast, but the havens do not admit large vessels.  The communication between the insular and continental possessions, the German ocean and the Baltic, and consequently the commerce of Denmark, was much facilitated by the canal of Keil, which was finished in 1785.  Prior to the year 1797, the commerce was much injured by numerous restraints on importation.  During the short wars between this country and Britain, it suffered considerably.  At present it cannot rank high as a commercial kingdom.  Denmark and the Duchies, as they are called, export wheat, rye, oats, barley, rape seed, horses, cattle, fish, wooden domestic articles, &c.; and import chiefly woollen goods, silks, cottons, hardware, cutlery, paper, salt, coals, iron, hemp, flax, wines, tobacco, sugar, and other colonial produce.

Sweden in general is a country, the wealth, and consequently the objects of commerce of which, are principally derived from its mines and woods.  Its principal ports are Stockholm and Gothenburgh.  The political event in the history of this country which gave the most favourable impulse to its commerce in modern times, is the alteration in its constitution after the death of Charles XII.; by this the liberties of the people were encreased, and a general stimulus towards national industry was given:  agriculture was improved, the produce of the mines doubled, and the fishery protected.  More lately, the revolution in 1772, and the loss of Finland, have been prejudicial to Sweden.  The principal exports are, iron, copper, pine-timber, pitch, tar, potash, fish, &c.; the principal imports are, corn, tobacco, salt, wines, oils, wool, hemp, soap, cotton, silk and woollen goods, hardware, sugar, and other colonial produce.

The most important commercial port on the southern shore of the Baltic is Dantzic, which belongs to Prussia.  This town retained a large portion of the commerce of the Baltic after the fall of the Hanseatic League, and with Lubec, Hamburgh, and Bremen, preserved a commercial ascendency in the Baltic.  It suffered, however, considerably by the Prussians acquiring possession of the banks of the Vistula, until it was incorporated with the kingdom in 1793.  Dantzic exports nearly the whole of the produce of the fertile country of Poland, consisting of corn, hides, horse-hair, honey, wax, oak, and other timber; the imports consist principally of manufactured goods and colonial produce.  Swedish Pomerania, and Mecklenburgh, neither of which possess any ports of consequence, draw the greater part of their exports from the soil, as salted and smoked meat, hides, wool, butter, cheese, corn, and fruit; the imports, like those of Dantzic, are principally manufactured goods and colonial produce.