120 North
to Hamburg by way of Tönning and the Elbe which, however, delayed subse-
quent shipment to the interior.33 The total number of Hamburg bound ships
declined from 2,108 (1802) to 1,947 (1803).
Losses were primarily in bulk goods, as recorded in relation to the hard
coal imports, which burdened industry more than anything else. On the other
hand, Hamburg’s time as financial center and banking headquarters remained
unbroken, because mail boats from Husum established a bi-weekly connection
to London (with regular information on the exchange rates). The sea insur-
ance industry also grew during the blockade period. This blockade was, with
the exception of a few relaxations such as in the allowance of the cotton wool
shipment between Tönning and Hamburg, officially lifted for the first time in
October of 1805 as the French Army moved off to battle with Austria. The re-
stimulation of Hamburg’s shipping in all directions in November of 1806 effec-
tively impaired the imposition of the so-called Continental Blockade.
As a result of the resignation of the Holy Roman Imperial Crown by Franz ii
and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the Hanseatic Cities also
reorganized themselves anew. In order to avoid political reorganization
(Mediatisierung) under the auspices of Prussia or Denmark, Bremen, Hamburg
and Lübeck immediately took up negotiations concerning a Hanseatic Alliance,
which was intended to fill the resultant vacuum left behind after the downfall
of the Empire.34 However the Prussian defeat near Jena and Auerstedt and the
following French expansion burst into the discussion. The French victory over
the Prussian Army near Jena and Auerstedt had given the French economic
policy against Great Britain a new foundation. In the course of the pursuit of
fleeing Prussian troops, the French took over Lübeck (the location to which
the Prussian Field Marshall Blücher had withdrawn) on the sixth of November,
Hamburg on the nineteenth of November, and Bremen on the twentieth of
November. Because France now ruled great portions of the North and Baltic
Sea coasts, an end to the trade with England appeared to lie near at hand.
However, protectionist measures could only be enacted in cooperation with
other states.
33 Walther Vogel, Die Hansestädte und die Kontinentalsperre (Munich, o.a., 1913), 13f.
34 Antjekatrin Graßmann, “Vom reichsfreyen Bürger zum vogelfreyen Republikaner’—
Tradition und Chancen der drei Hansestädte 1806,” in Michael North, and Robert Riemer,
eds., Das Ende des Alten Reiches im Ostseeraum. Wahrnehmung und Transformation
(Cologne/Weimar/Vienna, 2008), 126–142. Hans-Dieter Loose, “Der Verfall der
Reichsordnung in der Wahrnehmung der Bürger der Reichsstädte Lübeck, Hamburg und
Bremen 1801–1806,” in Michael North, and Robert Riemer, eds., Das Ende des Alten Reiches
im Ostseeraum. Wahrnehmung und Transformation (Cologne/Weimar/Vienna, 2008),
144–155.