cornucopia. A commercial treaty with Dom Joao in 1810 threw Brazil
open to British trade, so that British exports to South America rose from
£1.2 million in 1807 to £2.7 million in 1812.
Most of all, the British could take independent action against Napoleon
in Spain but not in the rest of the continent until 1813 ; this enabled them
to allay the suspicions of nations like Russia, who feared that Britain
wanted to conduct the war against Napoleon on their backs, and also to
shrug off requests for military aid, as from Russia in 1812 and Austria in
- Not coincidentally, Spain made Wellington's fame and fortune,
especially after he was formally given the title of Commander-in-Chief in
1812 , for if he had been able to campaign with Britain's allies in northern
Europe before 1815, he would have been merely another minor general.
The Peninsular campaign gave Britain an independent voice at later peace
talks - a voice that would probably have been drowned by the Russians
and Austrians had she committed her forces to northern Europe.
This explains why the British were always more lavish with subsidies
in Spain than in other theatres of war. They began by giving the five
leading juntas £1.1 million, with a promise of more once a supreme junta
had been set up. Once this was done, in September 1808, a British envoy
was sent to the peninsula with £6so,ooo in silver and instructions to
negotiate a commercial treaty covering Latin America. Altogether, £2.5
millions in arms and money was sent to Spain in 1808, leading to severe
specie shortages in England. This shortage was the principal reason why
Britain could not take maximum advantage of Napoleon's embroilment
with Austria in 1809.
With the British fu lly engaged, the position of the French, committed
to holding down all of Spain, quickly became untenable. To combat the
threefold opposition of Wellington, the Spanish army and the guerrillas,
the French could seldom field an army even Ioo,ooo strong at the point
of maximum danger, even with their vast numbers. Suchet commanded
8o,ooo in Aragon and Catalonia; Joseph's personal corps in Madrid
numbered 14,ooo; another 6o,ooo were kept back to guard the Pyrenean
passes and keep open the roads to Madrid and Salamanca; and a further
6o,ooo under Soult entered Andalucia in 1810 and became bogged down
in a pointless siege of Cadiz.
There were three separate enemy forces facing the French and there
were three distinct phases of the Peninsular War which roughly
corresponded with them. In 1808 the Spanish army enjoyed its one great
triumph at Bailen, in the wake of the nationwide spontaneous uprisings.
In the second phase of the war, roughly from 1809 to 1812, the campaign
was mixed, part regular engagements involving Wellington and the
