The Berlin Decree established a notional blockade: any ship coming
direct from a British port or having been in a British port after the decree
came into effect, would not be permitted to use a Continental port; if
such a ship made a false declaration, it was to be seized. All goods had to
be accompanied by a 'Certificate of Origin' and all goods of British origin
or ownership were to be confiscated wherever found. At first Britain
affected to respond with incredulity and contempt. Comparisons were
made with a Papal bull against comets and cartoons in London
newspapers showed Napoleon blockading the moon. The general feeling
was that the blockade would have little effect and, even if it did, trade
could be switched to the U.S.A., Latin America and the colonies, which
already took two-thirds of British exports.
Nevertheless, some anxiety was evident in the promulgation by
London of the first Order in Council in January 1807, which prohibited
trade 'between port and port of countries under the dominion or usurped
control of France and her allies'. Napoleon hit back by extending his
blockade to Turkey, Austria and Denmark, which prompted Canning's
counter-stroke against the Danish fleet. July 1807 was a critical month for
England for, even as Napoleon and Czar Alexander concluded their
accord at Tilsit, a rash boarding of the U.S. frigate Chesapeake by the
Royal Navy conjured visions of a war with the United States. If both
northern Europe and the United States were closed to British trade, the
consequences for English exports could be catastrophic.
In November and December 1807 London therefore issued the central
Orders in Council, which required all trade with Napoleonic Europe to
pass through British ports, where it would be licensed after paying a
transit tax of 2 s% of the total intended transaction; failure to observe this
procedure meant being seized as lawful prize by the Royal Navy. The
consequence in this tit-for-tat battle was predictable: by the Milan
decrees of 23 November and 17 December 1807 Napoleon ordered the
seizure of all ships which had put into a British port and obeyed the
Orders in Council. Caught in this damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you
don't crossfire, Americans and other neutrals complained that the only
trade allowed them by the Royal Navy was precisely the kind Napoleon
had forbidden them. President Jefferson tried to deal with this
conundrum with his Embargo Act of December 1807, which banned
American trade with Europe and embargoed the import of British
manufactured goods. Far from putting pressure on the belligerents, the
Embargo Act simply harmed American economic interests and was
repealed in March 1809, to be replaced by a supposedly more nuanced
Non-Intercourse Act.
marcin
(Marcin)
#1