finance fun fact

finance fun fact to reach the Baltics by sea ships must sail through a narrow stretch of water between Denmark and Sweden and starting in the 1420s whoever controlled this crucial junction it was usually the Danish could levy hefty taxes for crossing through which they happily paid initially the king would charge a single gold coin which is worth about €3,000 today to cross each way the penalty for not complying was CANNONS the king had pricing power too for example King Christian IV doubled the tax to two gold coins and at some point the fee across changed to 10% of whatever the ship's captain claimed the goods on board were worth Ad Valorem Tax [ad-və-lôr-əm taks] A tax imposed on an item based on its assessed value. clearly the captain had an incentive to undervalue the ship's goods but the king was very smart he granted himself an option to buy all the goods on board at whatever the captain's stated price was Kronborg Castle's strategic location enabled the king to collect the so called Sound Dues for nearly 400 years funding grand renovations and lavish parties in the castle the lore of this place inspired Shakespeare to set his famous tragedy, Hamlet, here and it also earned the castle a spot on UNESCO's World Heritage list in the year 2000 hope you enjoyed this