The war put
many difficulties in the way of neutral commerce. England's maritime
supremacy gave the trade of Europe into her hands. For her own purposes
she encouraged neutral trade with herself to the great profit of those
who engaged in it, but she placed rigorous restrictions on the trade of
neutrals with her enemy. France, in a more lawless fashion, had
attempted to destroy neutral trade with England, but had only succeeded
in driving the ships of neutral states from her own ports.[312] England
could enforce her system in every sea. She refused to allow that an
enemy's goods were covered by a neutral flag, and insisted that naval
stores were contraband of war, and that no trade should be carried on
with a port of which she declared a blockade. In 1798 Sweden and Denmark
adopted the plan of sending their merchant ships under convoy to exempt
them from search. Paul saw his opportunity in the annoyance which the
British system caused to neutral states, and in May and June, 1800,
invited Sweden and Denmark to resist it. In July a Danish frigate, the
_Freya_, with a convoy was stopped by British ships in the Channel; her
captain refused to allow the ships under his convoy to be searched, and
after a short resistance the _Freya_ was captured and taken into the
Downs. The government despatched Whitworth to Copenhagen to remonstrate
on this act of war on the part of Denmark, and enforced his
representations by sending a squadron into the Sound.

Christian VII. gave way, and promised to send no more convoys until the
question was decided by treaty. He complained to Russia, and Paul in
November laid an embargo on all British ships, imprisoned the crews of
those in his ports, and seized British merchandise. He further invited
Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia to form an alliance for the protection of
their flags on the basis of insisting that the neutral flag should cover
an enemy's goods, not being contraband of war, that contraband should
not include naval stores, and that if a declaration of blockade was to
be respected, the blockade must be effectual, and that ships convoyed by
a man-of-war belonging to their sovereign should be exempt from search
by a belligerent on a declaration by the captain of the convoying ship
that they were not carrying contraband goods. This move was highly
gratifying to Bonaparte, for it struck at England's naval and commercial
ascendency, and a treaty which he concluded with the United States in
Sep