Continental System was a political fight of Napoleon through economic means to ruin his obstinate enemy, England. After the treaty of Tilsit (1807), Napoleon became the paramount master of the entire continent. However, there was one hindrance in his way to the supremacy which blocked his path and that was the Navy. Napoleon was aware of his weakness in the Naval Front, and, therefore, followed the continental system, which the historians have termed as the court of last throw of political gamble, compelled by the exigencies of the game to risk all or fail correspondingly. Napoleon having lost his Navy to Nelson had never tried to rebuild it to match the British strength. He thought that there was one weak point in the British industry and commerce, and if he attacked it, he would be able to bring the British on their knees. What he was required to do was to put an end to the monopoly of the British goods in the Continent. The cheap markets of the British goods promoted it, but once the British trade and commerce was lost, the British prosperity was to go to loss. This, in his opinion, was the best method of teaching a lesson to the ‘nation of shopkeepers’, as he called the British.
In Napoleon’s opinion, France was a self-sufficient country. Through his commercial codes, he organised his trade and commerce and made it prosperous and profitable. He knew that Britain was a manufacturing country. They sold their surplus goods outside their country, and thus earned huge profits and foreign exchange. Being prevented from carrying on this trade outside the country, she would no more have supply of cash and would go bankrupt. Her financial tendency would not then permit her to pay for the continuance of war and hence would submit to the French.
Napoleon felt that the ruin of the British overseas trade would result in her ruin of industry. The British manufacturers, due to the lack of customers, would draw the shutters of godowns and factories. Thousands of workers would be thrown out of work and prevail starvation. Commercial classes would raise in revolt and would put terrific pressure on the government to make peace with Napoleon. In the words of Prof. Hayes, “During the period 1806 to 1812, the struggle between Napoleon and Great Britain was an economic endurance test. On the one hand the question was whether British government could retain the support of the British people. On the other hand, the question was whether Napoleon could rely upon the co-operation of the whole continent.”
After having thought the problem, Napoleon resolved and embarked upon his plan of conquering England. The adopted policy of Continental Blockade, which the Convention and the Directory had started, gave it the real shape and forced more. In 1806 A.D., when he had his deserving victories at Moringo, Austerlitz and Jena, he considered himself the master of Europe and was in a position to enforce the Economic Blockade. He, therefore, used his weapon unflinchingly without changing his mind. He came out in November 1806 with the intention in this connection, for the first time, openly by issuing what are known as the Berlin Decrees. Through these Decrees, he out rightly came out with what had been going on so far in his mind. He declared England to be the enemy of the European continent and expressed his intention unequivocally to fight and defeat the obstinate British, who had nothing but contempt for Europe and its people. These islanders (i.e. the British) had never considered themselves, in his opinion, the members of the same European family. He told the European nations that time had come to pay them back with the same contempt as the British had shown them. Till then, Napoleon in this way wanted to arouse the feelings of the Europeans against his enemy to get their whole-heart co-operation in this great and earnest endeavour to defeat the British. It was a good plan and he could succeed if the Continental Blockade had not lingered on. Had it been a short affair, it would have succeeded. Unfortunately for Napoleon, the British had a reply for the Continental Blockade and it was this answer from which Napoleon’s scheme of conquering England came to grief.
Though the continental blockade of England had been done by the National Convention and the Directory, but with no success. Now it was Napoleon;s turn to give it a definite shape. The Berlin Decree, the first in the series, was issued on November 18, 1806. It was compared to a thunder-bolt. He declared that the whole of the British isles, i.e. England, Scotland, Ireland and the Wales, was to be in the state of blockade. He miscalculated the usefulness of the French Navy to enforce the blockade on the superior British Naval Fleet. That is why the historians have called it the most fictitious blockade ever ordered in history. He prohibited all commerce with British ports, wholly or partially of British origin, and declared them liable to seizure. This was the most outrageous violation of the neutral rights under International Law, which had been perpetuated by Napoleon. The Cambridge Modern History has summed it up in the following words, “It is no exaggeration to say that the Berlin Decree of 18th November, 1806 was the climax to which Napoleon’s policy had so long been working for.” How strict Napoleon wanted to be to the blockade can be found in a letter written to General Juno in which he stated that the wives of his chief officers and Generals should also avoid using English goods, because they were the people who were to set an example for others. “Let them take care also,” wrote Napoleon, “that no part of their dress is composed of English merchandise. ....... It is a contest of life and death between France and England. I must look for the most cordial times in those homes I am surrounded.” To the Berlin Decrees, England’s most useful weapon lay, as according to Ramsay Muir, “ She could damage Napoleon in the eyes of the subjects by making them realise that his commercial war was cutting them off by necessary supplies and was a victim upon grievous harshes.”
An Order in Council was issued in January 1807, which pointed out that England had prohibited all trade with France. Again, the Orders were issued in which England made concessions to Denmark and Russia by making its goods available for sale in those countries. In November 1807, England imposed blockade of all European ports and thus brought to an end the neutral trade. It made the neutrals miserable as they were now between the devil and the deep sea. It made, in fact, impossible for them to be strictly neutral. At the same time, the British relaxed the navigation and offered substantial concessions to non-neutrals and thus encouraged the neutral countries openly to come out for trade with Great Britain instead of France.
Realising a setback and a dent in his Continental System, Napoleon again issued decrees from Warsaw, whereby he ordered the confiscation of the British goods and prohibited the possession of the British goods by any trader or householder. Again, he issued from Milan his decrees. In this Decree, he declared that any neutral vassal was liable to seizure. This was done to encounter the British orders. In 1809, Britain modified her policy by limiting her blockade to the coasts of Holland, France and Italy, thus leaving the trade open with Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Politic lands. Napoleon, on the other hand, stiffened his policy. He had realised that his vassals were not carrying on his policy on a large scale. So by the Tariff Decrees of August 5, 1810, he imposed duties amounting to 15% average on Principal Colonial Prospects. On the same time, by the Decree of Fountainbleau, issued in 1810, Napoleon ordained the seizure and destruction of Britain manufacturing goods and set up a special tribunal to enforce this order. “These monster inactments brought ruin and suffering wherever they were applied and nothing did more to Napoleon’s subjects than the spectacle of the wanted destruction of grave stones of desperately needed supplies.”
Such were the measures of attack and reprisals by means of which Napoleon carried on his commercial war for years together. In the opinion of Marriott, “Between the Decrees launched by Napoleon and the British reprisals, there was this essential difference -- Great Britain had the power of enforcing them effectively, Napoleon had not. Britain was the mistress of seas and it ruled the waves. She could cut off the trade of France and her allies from the rest of the world.”
Despite all this and the early realisation for the success of Continental System, it was essential that he had the support of every European country, more essentially that with Naval Power, he would survive off the aggression upon the countries in the European Continent. He was reluctant in resolving the deadlock, resulting to the costly wars. Prof. Trevelyan writes, “England’s resistance unexpectedly continued and drew Napoleon on into more and more dangerous schemes of Spain and Russia into ever stricter prohibition against trade. It seemed that he must conquer and starve the whole world in order to starve and conquer the islanders i.e. British.”
The Tsar of Russia had promised Napoleon at Tilsit in 1807 that he would not allow the British ships and her goods to enter any of the Russian ports. Austria and Prussia had been severely crushed by Napoleon that they had to enforce his policy willy-nilly in their dominions. Sweden was still in alliance with England and in 1808, Napoleon declared war against her and forced her to close all Scandinavians to England. Napoleon’s brother, Louis Bonaparte, was made the master of Holland, but he could not enforce the blockade. Consequently, Louis was forced to abdicate and Holland was annexed into France. Napoleon also captured North Coast. His empire included the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and the Duchy of Westphalia, and also forced the system on Cis Alpine, Naples, Tuscany etc. His negotiations with the Pope brought him in conflict with the Papal States, which were captured and the Pope was put in the prison. This completely made him the enemy of all the Christian States, who would not forgive him for the insult inflicted on the Pope.
Portugal, the old friend of Britain, was also antagonised and this gave the British an opportunity to create trouble for Napoleon during the Peninsular War. Thus it was all suicidal for Napoleon during to enforce the Continental System on the unwilling nations of Europe. It failed right from the beginning and did fail ultimately because it lacked the sympathy and co-operation of the people of Europe. His policy of starving the world in order to starve Great Britain was also a negative one, which brought nothing but miseries, sufferings, trials and timulations for the people of Europe and people of France and ultimately led to his downfall. Napoleon had matured earlier and probably he had grown old earlier as well. It is said that after forty, he was not the same Napoleon. His knack of doing right things at the right time had left him in forty, hence his downfall.
