Continental System
Napoleon issued the Berlin Decree on 21 November 1806 in response to the naval blockade of the French coasts enacted by the British government on 16 May 1806.
[4] The Berlin Decree forbade the import of British goods into any European country allied with or dependent upon France, and it installed the Continental System in Europe.
[7] Angry governments gained an incentive to ignore the Continental System, which led to the weakening of Napoleon's coalition.
His forces were tied down in Spain, in which the Spanish War of Independence occurred simultaneously, and suffered severely in, and ultimately retreated from, Russia in 1812.
Attacks that involved naval power had all failed, with the systematic defeats of the combined French and Spanish navies.
Napoleon believed it would be easy to take advantage of an embargo on trade with the European nations under his control, causing inflation and great debt to undermine British strength.
Napoleon decreed that all commercial ships wishing to do business in Europe must first stop at a French port in order to ensure that there could be no trade with Britain.
He also ordered all European nations and French allies to stop trading with Britain, and he threatened Russia with an invasion if they did not comply as well.
The embargo encouraged British merchants to seek out new markets aggressively and to engage in smuggling with continental Europe.
If they chose to trade with France or otherwise comply with the Continental System, the orders in council threatened to respond with punitive measures.
[21] The industrialised north and east of France, and Wallonia (the south of present-day Belgium) saw significantly increased profits due to the lack of competition from British goods (particularly textiles, which were produced much more cheaply in Britain).
In Italy, the agricultural sector flourished;[22] but the Dutch economy, predicated on trade, suffered greatly as a result of the embargo.
Britain's first response to the Continental System was to launch a major naval attack on the weakest link in Napoleon's coalition, Denmark.
This base made it easier for Britain to control trade to North Sea ports and to facilitate smuggling.
Sweden, Britain's ally in the Third Coalition, refused to comply with French demands and was attacked by Russia in February and by Denmark-Norway in March 1808.
At the same time, a French force threatened to invade southern Sweden, but the plan was stopped as the Royal Navy controlled the Danish straits.
He failed, as Prince-regent John VI, acting for his mother, Queen Maria I of Portugal, took the fleet and transferred the Portuguese court to Brazil with a Royal Navy escort.
The Portuguese population rose in revolt against the French invaders, with the help of the British Army under Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington.
