 In February, French troops occupied the Spanish-controlled Duchies of Milan and Mantua in Northern Italy and fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands previously held by the Dutch.This threatened the Dutch monopoly over the Scheldt granted by the 1648 Peace of Münster and English mercantile interests, since control of Antwerp and Ostend would allow France to blockade the Channel at will.Combined with the imposition of French tariffs on English imports and Spain's award of the lucrative Asiento contract on 27 August to the French Guinea Company, Tory opposition to war was gradually eroded.