This account of Napoleon's trade war with Great Britain (1806-12),
by a Swedish economist, is extremely interesting. It is, indeed, the only comprehensive account yet written. Dr. Heckscher shows that Napoleon's policy was a failure largely because governments in his day were not nearly so powerful and efficient as they are now, and the reason for this again lies in the increased honesty of public administration. The author comments on the thoroughness of our blockade of Germany in the late War : he contrasts with this the laxity that allowed Napoleon to receive from Mexico in 1807 a vast remittance of silver, which was actually conveyed by British warships from Vera Cruz to a Continental port and financed by an Anglo-French-Dutch syndicate of bankers, the Barings, the Hopes, and Ouvrard of Paris. The history of the System abounds in such paradoxes. Bourrienne imported English cloth and leather through Hamburg to provide uniforms for the French army. Napoleon's officials made fortunes by conniving at trade with England, and their master contented himself with demanding a share of the plunder.
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