sive, but on a line
of defense carried to the enemy's sea frontiers and comparable to
siege lines about a city or fortress, which, when once established,
thrust upon the enemy the problem of breaking through. The efforts
of France to pierce this barrier, exerted in various directions
and by various means, were, as we have seen, defeated by naval
engagements, which insured to England the control of the sea. During
this period, France lost altogether 55 ships-of-the-line, Holland
18, Spain 10, and Denmark 2, a total of 85, of which at least 50
were captured by the enemy. Great Britain lost 20, but only 5 by
capture. The British battle fleet at the close of hostilities had
increased to 189 capital ships; that of France had shrunk to 45.

For purposes of commerce warfare the French navy had suffered the
withdrawal of many of its smaller fighting vessels and large numbers
of its best seamen, attracted into privateering by the better promise
of profit and adventure. As a result of this warfare, about 3500
British merchantmen were destroyed, an average of 500 a year,
representing an annual loss of 2-1/2 per cent of all the ships of
British register. But in the meantime the French merchant marine
and commerce had been literally swept off the seas. In 1799 the
Directory admitted there was "not a single merchant ship on the seas
carrying the French flag." French imports from Asia, Africa, and
America in 1800 amounted to only $300,000, and exports to $56,000,
whereas England's total export and import trade had nearly doubled,
from 44-1/2 million pounds sterling in 1792 to nearly 78 million in
1800. It is true that, owing to the exigencies of war, the amount of
British shipping employed in this trade actually fell off slightly,
and that of neutrals increased from 13 to 34%. But the profits
went chiefly to British merchants. England had become the great
storehouse and carrier for the Continent, "Commerce," in the phrase
engraved on the elder Pitt's monument, "being united with and made
to flourish by war."[1]

[Footnote 1: Figures on naval losses from Graviere, GUERRES MARITIMES,
Vol. II, ch. VII, and on commerce, from Mahan, FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND EMPIRE, Vol. II, ch. XVII.]

REFERENCES

See end of Chapter XIII, page 285.

CHAPTER XIII

THE NAPOLEONIC WAR [_Concluded_]: TRAFALGAR AND AFTER

The peace finally ratified at Amiens in March, 1802, failed to
accomplish any of the purposes for which England had entered the