122 North
and Tönning lost importance as a smuggling port. Moreover, Hamburg’s ships
frequently sailed from 1807 until 1810, from Great Britain to Russia, but also to
Sweden and to other Baltic seaports as well as sporadically overseas.
On the other hand, Lübeck had profited from the Elbe blockade for a long
time, which was reflected in growing ship traffic until the year 1805/1806.
In the year 1807, the ship traffic of Lübeck’s port collapsed for the first time
and in the years to follow was hardly able to recover. Unlike Hamburg or
the Prussian ports, Lübeck had only a slight share in smuggling, especially
because it was under the strict customs examinations of the French and
at the same time was developed as a station for the French navy. Yet here
also we must consider smuggling and illicit trade by way of Denmark, even
though we do not have specific data at our disposal. Travemünde was, above
all, a destination port for smuggling from Mecklenburg that, like Mecklenburg,
was also afflicted by English hijackings.37 An unbroken monitoring of the
Continental Blockade in the North and Baltic Seas was not possible.
Two results were the Degrees of Trianon and Fontainebleu (August 5 and
October 18, 1810), which attempted to root out smuggling with new measures.
These included trade authorizations instead of expensive licenses, the levy of
high customs fees on colonial wares, and also the burning of English industrial
products. For better control over the planned measures, the three Hanseatic
cities, as well as their affiliated districts were also—after the Netherlands had
already been annexed in the summer of 1810 and become a department of the
French crown—annexed and formed into the “three Hanseatic departments:
Bouches de l’Elbe, Bouches du Weser, and Ems Supérior with capital cities in
Hamburg, Bremen, and Osnabrück.”38
The organization of the new departments was supposed to take over a com-
mittee, while the General Governor Davout represented the highest authority.
Besides this, the district was supposed to become economically united through
the design of a great canal building project (Canal de la Seine-Baltique). This
canal was intended to lead from Lübeck by way of the old Stecknitzkanal to
Hamburg and from there through Stade, Oldenburg, and Leer to the Züderzee.
From there, a water connection to Antwerp and Paris already existed. This
project, however, remained in the planning stages, just as a fortification of
the sea route from Hamburg through the mud flats alongside the East Fresian
islands to Holland.
37 Friedrich Voeltzer, “Lübecks Wirtschaftslage unter dem Druck der Kontinentalsperre”
(Hamburg, 1925), 37–41.
38 Vogel, Die Hansestädte, 41. Burghart Schmidt, Hamburg im Zeitalter der Französischen
Revolution und Napoleons (1789–1813) (Hamburg 1998).