On August 5th a decree had been promulgated at the Trianon, near Versailles, which imposed enormous duties on every important colonial product.

Cotton--especially that from America--sugar, tea, coffee, cocoa, and other articles were subjected to dues, generally of half their value and irrespective of their place of production.
[Illustration: CENTRAL EUROPE AFTER 1810] Traders were ordered to declare their possession of all colonial wares and to pay the duty, under pain of confiscation.

Depots of such goods within four days' distance from the frontiers of the Empire were held to be clandestine; and troops were sent forthwith into Germany, Switzerland, and Spain to seize such stores, a proceeding which aroused the men of Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Berne to almost open resistance.

It is difficult to see the reason for this decree, except on the supposition that the Continental System did not stop British imports, and that all tropical products were British.
Napoleon's own correspondence shows that he believed this to be so.

At that same time he issued orders that all colonial produce found at Stettin should be confiscated because it was evidently English property brought on American ships.