Berlin Decrees

Issued by Napoleon, November, 1806, to the following

effect: The British Isles were in a state of blockade; intercourse with

them was prohibited; all British subjects within French authority were

to be held as prisoners of war; all British property, private and

public, was declared to be prize of war; also merchandise from Britain;

merchants whose property had been captured by British cruisers were to

be indemnified fr m the product of such seizures; no British ships were

to be admitted into any port of France, or her allies; every vessel

eluding this rule was to be confiscated. The object of the decrees was

to close the continent against British commerce. The British government

retaliated by issuing an order-in-council, refusing to neutrals the

right of trading from one hostile port to another. =Index=: (General Brock era)

Directed by Napoleon against commerce of Great Britain, 81, 82, 105,

171, 172. =Bib.:= Dict. Eng. Hist.; Green, Short History of the

English People; Kingsford, History of Canada.