One duty with which I was entrusted, and to which great importance was attached, was the application and execution of the disastrous Continental system in the north.  In my correspondence I did not conceal the dissatisfaction which this ruinous measure excited, and the Emperor’s eyes were at length opened on the subject by the following circumstance.  In spite of the sincerity with which the Danish Government professed to enforce the Continental system, Holstein contained a great quantity of colonial produce; and, notwithstanding the measures of severity, it was necessary that that merchandise should find a market somewhere.  The smugglers often succeeded in introducing it into Germany, and the whole would probably soon have passed the custom-house limits.  All things considered, I thought it advisable to make the best of an evil that could not be avoided.  I therefore proposed that the colonial produce then in Holstein, and which had been imported before the date of the King’s edict for its prohibition, should be allowed to enter Hamburg on the payment of 30, and on some articles 40, per cent.  This duty was to be collected at the custom-house, and was to be confined entirely to articles consumed in Germany.  The colonial produce in Altona, Glnckstadt, Husum, and other towns of Holstein, lead been estimated, at about 30,000,000 francs, and the duty would amount to 10,000,000 or 12,000,000.  The adoption of the plan I proposed would naturally put a stop to smuggling; for it could not be doubted that the merchants would give 30 or 33 per cent for the right of carrying on a lawful trade rather than give 40 per cent. to the smugglers, with the chance of seizure.

The Emperor immediately adopted my idea, for I transmitted my suggestions to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the 18th of September, and on the 4th of October a decree was issued conformable to the plan I proposed.  Within six weeks after the decree came into operation the custom-house Director received 1300 declarations from persons holding colonial produce in Holstein.  It now appeared that the duties would amount to 40,000,000 francs, that is to say, 28,000,000 or 30,000,000 more than my estimate.

Bernadotte had just been nominated Prince Royal of Sweden.  This nomination, with all the circumstances connected with it, as well as Bernadotte’s residence in Hamburg, before he proceeded to Stockholm, will be particularly noticed in the next chapter.  I merely mention the circumstance here to explain some events which took place in the north, and which were, more or less, directly connected with it.  For example, in the month of September the course of exchange on St. Petersburg suddenly fell.  All the letters which arrived in Hamburg from the capital of Russia and from Riga, attributed the fall to the election of the Prince of Ponte-Corvo as Prince Royal of Sweden.  Of thirty letters which I received there was not one but described the consternation which the event had created in St. Petersburg.  This consternation, however, might have been excited less by the choice of Sweden than by the fear that that choice was influenced by the French Government.