Napoleon's correspondence and his whole policy with regard to licences, which we shall presently examine, shows clearly that he believed he would greatly benefit his own States and impoverish our people by selling us large stores of corn at a very high price.

There is no hint in any of his letters that he ever framed the notion of _starving_ us into surrender.

All that he looked to was the draining away of our wealth by cutting off our exports, and by allowing imports to enter our harbours much as usual.
As long as he prevented us selling our produce, he heeded little how much we bought from his States: in fact, the more we bought, the sooner we should be bankrupt--such was his notion.
It is strange that he never sought to cut off our corn-supplies.

They were then drawn almost entirely from the Baltic ports.

The United States and Canada had as yet only sent us a few driblets of corn.