Sold – Napoleon Orders the Seizure of American Vessels and Cargos

Great Britain was an important force in encouraging and financing resistance to Napoleonic France. Napoleon lacked the resources to attempt a cross-channel invasion or to defeat the Royal Navy at sea. His main attempt to do so ended with defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Napoleon resorted instead to economic warfare. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain was emerging as Europe’s manufacturing and industrial center, and Napoleon believed it would be vulnerable to an embargo on trade with the European nations under his control.

Napoleon’s Continental System began with the promulgation of the Berlin Decree of November 21, 1806, which, among other things: a) declared the British Isles “to be in a state of blockade;” b) required the imprisonment of certain British subjects found in foreign ports; c) prohibited the trade of any British goods; d) authorized that any vessel engaged in the above should be seized and its cargo taken; e) provided that these terms be strictly enforced throughout the Empire; f) and placed regional ministers in charge of enforcement.  The British followed suit soon thereafter, though U.S. Secretary of State James Monroe was informed that no action would be taken against any vessels from neutral nations.  Napoleon’s Milan Decree of November 1807 was designed to enforce his measures by arming French and allied vessels with a broader power of seizure of cargo and of ships.   Because the Milan Decree dictated that any vessel engaging in commerce with England, or any which allowed itself to be inspected by the British, was thereafter denationalized and subject to seizure, the line of neutrality was being blurred. Napoleon’s Bayonne Decree of April 17, 1808 went even farther. It ordered the seizure of American ships in European ports, resulting in over ten million dollars in United States goods and ships being confiscated.

In March of 1809 the United States enacted a Non-Intercourse Act providing that any French or British ship entering an American port could be confiscated. Despite his claim that he was unaware of the Non-Intercourse Act, Napoleon refers to it in a note written in December 1809.  Napoleon responded with the Rambouillet Decree declaring all American ships entering a French port subject to confiscation, regardless of the intent of the vessel. The decree was made retroactive to May 20, 1809, the date of the American Non-Intercourse Act.

These efforts were not a booming success for Napoleon. British goods were highly sought after and American shipping was adept at evading capture.  Napoleon found that much commerce was taking place through the back door, in a portion of Italy controlled by Austria.  This he aimed to change.

The Illyrian Provinces, today the Balkans, were created by the Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809 when the Austrian Empire ceded these territories after the defeat at the Battle of Wagram.  According to Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe by Alexander Grab, “Most importantly, the Emperor formed the Illyrian Provinces in order to tighten the Continental Blockade and close the Adriatic ports to commerce… [He] hoped to dislodge the British by turning the Adriatic sea into a French lake.”  In December 1809, Napoleon established a General Government for the Illyrian Provinces, and in early 1810 formally installed its first Governor-General, August-Frederic Marmont, Duc de Raguse, a veteran officer and formerly Governor of Dalmatia.

In January 1810, at the first meeting of his council of state of the year, Napoleon attempted to find a way out of his dilemma with the US.  He suggested that under certain terms he would allow American vessels to trade,  with only a proof of registration.  On February 15, 1810, he proposed to the American minister that they rework Franco-American relations to “consolidate the commerce and the prosperity of America,” in return for America’s cooperation in resisting British blockade efforts.  Napoleon seemed to have forgotten his previous promise to do just this, wrote the American negotiator, as this was hardly a new proposal.  But it may have been a measure designed to confuse rather than the result of forgetfulness.  Peter Hill, in his authoritative Napoleon’s Troublesome Americans, suggests that British overlapping orders of Parliament, and America’s reticence to align against England, made Napoleon fear a close connection between the two English speaking countries, though none existed.  While simultaneously offering negotiation, his policies toward both countries were often similar, if not the same.  Was Napoleon simultaneously offering hope of free commerce and interdicting it? The evidence is below.

Letter Signed, February 24, 1810, Paris, to Marshall Duc de Raguse, specifically targeting US commerce. “I have learned that American ships have been received in Trieste.  Give the order that all American vessels docking in the ports of Illyria will be sequestered and the cargo confiscated.  Take your hand personally to the execution of this order and do not suffer any commerce at Trieste with the English or the Americans.”  Letters of Napoleon directly relating to the United States are rare. A search of auction records going back more than three decades fails to turn up any other letter of his specifically ordering the seizure of American ships or cargo.