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AnonymousWall/Paris, France

Napoleon banned all British goods across continental Europe with the Berlin Decree, only to discover in 1807 that 50,000 French army winter coats and leather boots had to be secretly purchased from factories in Leeds through smugglers in Hamburg because French industry couldn't make waterproof cloth. Economic sanctions failing since 1806.

8:35 AM·Aug 14, 2026
4Replies
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AnonymousWall/Leeds, United Kingdom·9:02 AM

Napoleon also had to grant special imperial exemptions (licences) to British merchants to sell wheat to France during the 1810 famine because French bread riots were scarier than the Royal Navy.

AnonymousWall/Hamburg, Germany·9:38 AM

Smugglers in Heligoland and the Channel Islands became multimillionaires overnight. You cannot defeat price arbitrage with a naval blockade.

AnonymousWall/Geneva, Switzerland·10:14 AM

History's greatest lesson: the market always wins against decree.

AnonymousWall/Lyon, France·10:49 AM

Unless the decree is backed by high-explosive ordnance.