THE WAR AND FLUCTUATIONS IN MARITIME INTERCOURSE 683 
and claimed the right to use against England the same AD 1s 
measure which she had meted out to other traders:. He ’ 
accordingly declared the British Isles in a state of blockade; 
that all commerce and correspondence with Britain should 
cease; that all British subjects found in countries occupied 
by French troops should be prisoners of war; that all mer- 
chandise and property of British subjects should be a good 
and lawful prize; and that all British manufactures or mer- 
chandise should be deemed a good prize’, In responding to 
this manifesto England drifted into an act of aggression 
towards neutral states, which forced them, as during the War 
of Independence, into a position of hostility. By the Order 
in Council, issued January 7th, 1807, she declared that 
neutral vessels were not to trade from port to port on the 
coasts of France, or of French allies; and further, on the 11th 
>f November, the order appeared, which insisted that neutrals 
should only trade with a hostile port after touching at a 
British port, and after paying such customs as the British 
Government might impose. Napoleon retorted with the 
Milan Decree (Dec. 1807), which declared that any vessel, 0 Wines 
which had submitted to the British regulations, was thereby ’ 
lenationalised and good and lawful prize. 
By these steps Napoleon was successful in embroiling 
England in fresh and serious difficulties. The immediate these ” 
loss to the continental countries was indeed great, as Napoleon i 
insisted on the enforcement of his decrees all over Europe. on the 
Denmark, Sweden, and for a time Turkey submitted to his ¥ Zngland 
mandates; the Portuguese, who neglected his orders, were 
severely punished, and vast quantities of English goods were 
seized at Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck. The French 
Minister of Commerce congratulated himself prematurely. 
“England ” he wrote “sees her wares repudiated by the 
whole of Europe. Her vessels, laden with immense riches, are 
1 England was acting in accordance with the rule of 1798 “not to seize any 
neutral vessels which should be found carrying on trade directly between the 
colonies of the enemy and the neutral country to which the vessel belonged, and 
laden with property of the inhabitants of such neutral country, provided that such 
neutral vessel should not be supplying, nor should have on the outward voyage 
supplied, the enemy with any articles of contraband of war, and should not be 
‘rading with any blockaded ports.” Leone Levi, History, 104. 
2 Leone Levi, History, 106.