These licences were granted ostensibly to benefit French manufacture, under the obligation of exporting French or continental produce to an equal amount, a condition, however, which was easily and frequently evaded. In this manner a most lucrative trade was carried on, notwithstanding the exorbitant rates of the licences, and the great additional charges to which the whole transaction was subjected. British manufactures and colonial produce rose to an extravagant price in France, while foreign produce realised almost as greatly enhanced prices in England; so that, although the mass of the people on both sides the Channel suffered deeply from the interruptions caused by the Decrees on the one hand and the numerous Orders in Council on the other, producing great obstructions to the ordinary course of commerce, numerous classes amassed fortunes by these disturbing elements.
To add to the many sufferings the war created and to the confusion these sweeping proclamations had entailed, the price of wheat rapidly advanced in the spring of 1808. The scantiness of the crop of the previous year was beginning to be seriously felt, while apprehension daily increased that the exclusion of the British flag from the trade of the Baltic would cut off from England her supplies of food from that quarter of the world.[278]
partly accounted for by the Orders in Council.
But though British ships were to a great extent excluded from the trade of the Baltic, the Orders in Council enabled them in the long run to obtain almost a complete monopoly of the other portions of the carrying trade of the world. England at this time had practically exclusive possession of the East and West Indies; and the colonial produce brought in her vessels was, in spite of the efforts of Bonaparte, distributed at a great profit over the whole of the continent of Europe. It is unnecessary here to enter into a dissertation as to the general effect of a monopoly produced by war on prices or on the interests of the consumer; nor is it necessary to lay down the principle that, in the long run, a state of peace must, in these days at least, prove far more profitable to the shipowner than a state of war. But during the latter period of the great French war, whatever diminution may have taken place in the building of ships, it is certain that at no period was British shipping more prosperous, or employed at higher freights. Scarcely a ship belonging to any other nation could sail without a licence, which, following the example of France, the British government had rendered imperative.[279] The whole of the exportable produce of the East and West Indies, and a large portion of that from South America, now came to the ports of Great Britain, either for consumption or re-exportation; and any effort of Bonaparte to exclude these necessary articles from the continent proved nearly, if not altogether abortive. England now, to all intents and purposes, obtained a monopoly, costly it is true, but she can never again hope to carry on hostilities with any of the great powers of Europe and bring, as it were, under her dominion at the same time all the material riches of the world.[280]
But while the cost of articles imported from the continent of Europe was enhanced by the difficulty of communication, and the circuitous routes it often became necessary to adopt, similar causes raised the price of colonial produce, and of some descriptions of British manufactures, to a still greater proportionate height on the continent, so that the severity with which the decrees of the enemy were enforced operated more directly against imports from England than against exports to that country, and many curious instances besides those we have just mentioned are given of the extraordinary rates paid for freight.[281]
Ingenuity of merchants in shipping goods.
Among the various means devised by the ingenuity and enterprise of adventurers to elude and overcome the obstacles presented by the decrees of the enemy, one in particular, which was resorted to on an extensive scale, deserves mention. Several vessels laden with sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton-twist, and other valuable commodities were despatched from England at very high rates of freight and insurance to Saloniki, in European Turkey. Refined sugar and other goods were packed in boxes made at a considerable additional expense, so that each package should not exceed about two hundredweight. These, when landed, were conveyed on mules and pack-horses through Servia and Hungary to Vienna, for the purpose of being distributed over Germany, and sometimes even into France. The articles sold at enormously high prices. Sugar fetched 5s. to 6s. per lb.; coffee 7s. per lb.; indigo 18s.; and cotton 7s. and 8s. per lb.[282]
Smuggling.
On the 5th September, 1807, the English made themselves masters of the small island of Heligoland (which was confirmed to them by the Treaty of Kiel, January 14th, 1814), and thence enormous quantities of British goods were smuggled into Holstein, and thence again were conveyed at a charge of 33 to 40 per cent. within the French custom-house line. This regular traffic, being well known to the imperial authorities, and sometimes connived at on account of its enormous profits, was alleged as a justification for the sale of licences, especially as Bourrienne, who at that time was resident at Hamburg, had represented to Napoleon that he had much better at once authorize the trade on these terms, and realise for himself this contraband profit. Napoleon adopted the proposal, and in consequence sixty millions of francs (2,400,000l.) worth of English produce was in one year openly imported into that town alone. The same system was adopted in Prussia; while legions of custom-house officers and coastguards were employed to put down contraband trade with the English.
Licence system in England.