CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. The name given to the commercial policy adopted by Napoleon for the purpose of shutting England out from all connection with the Continent of Europe, and thus compelling her to acknowledge the maritime law as established at the Peace of Utreeht. This system began with Napoleon's famous Ber lin Decree of November 21, 1806, which declared the British Isles in a state of blockade and prohibited all commerce or correspondence with them ; every Englishman found in a cotmtry oc cupied by French troops or by their allies was declared a prisoner of war; all merchandise be to an Englishman was made lawful prize; and all trade in English goods was entirely pro hibited. No ship coming directly from England, or from a British colony. was allowed to enter any port; and any ship seeking by false declara tions to evade this regulation was confiscated with its cargo as if British property. England was not long in making reprisals. By an Order in Council. January 7. 1S07. all neutral vessels were prohibited from trading from port to port within France or any country in alliance with it or under its control. Every neutral yes set violating this order was to be confiscated with its cargo. Napoleon responded by a decree dated Warsaw, January 25, 1807, which ordered the confiscation of all English or English colonia,1 merchandise found in the German Hanse towns. By a second Order in Council, November 11, 1807, all harbors and places in France and her allies in Europe and the colonies, as well as in every country with which England was not at war, but from which the English flag was ex cluded, were placed under the same restrictions as if strictly blockaded. These orders were followed by reprisals on the French side. By the Milan decree of December 17, 1807, strengthened by a second, of January 11, 1808, issued from the Tuileries, any vessel, of whatever nation, that had been searched by an English ship, or had submitted to be sent on a voyage to England, or paid any duty to the English Government, was to be declared denationalized, and treated as English. By the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) Russia
consented to close her ports to English commerce, and in order the more effectually to annihilate such commerce, there appeared, August 3, 1810, the tariff of Trianon for colonial goods; this was extended by a decree of September 2: on Octo ber 18 followed the decree of Fontainebleau, ordering the burning of all English goods, an order which was to be carried out with more or less modification in all countries connected with France.
The consequence of the Continental System was undoubtedly the springing up upon the Con tinent of many branches of manufacture to the loss of England; on the other band, the price of foreign goods rose to an extraordinary height, enabling a few merchants to make fortunes, but sensibly affecting the daily comfort of the middle classes. On the whole, the Continental System, both politically and economically, was a mis take. Russia abandoned it in 1810, and with the up of Napoleon's power the system collapsed entirely. On the English side the en forcement of the Orders in Council gave offense to the United States, and was one of the princi pal causes of the War of 1812. Consult: Mahan. The Influence of Sea Power 'upon the French Revolution and Empire (Boston, 1894) ; Thiers, Ilistoire du eonsulat et de rempire (Paris, 1845-62) ; Cime. Etude sur l•s tarifs dc douane et les traites de commerce (Paris, 1875) ; Henry Adams, History of the United States (New York, 1889-91). See NEUTRALS ; NAPO LEON I.