While England did suffer inflation, a weakening in the pound, work shortages, strikes, and businesses going through bankruptcy, The French Empire was suffering much more. The French Empire had almost all the same problems, but they also had an Emperor that was spending almost all of the nation's money on war. However, Britain did begin to recover in 1812 by reaching an export figure of fifty million pounds. The continental system could not even come close to equaling this. What Napoleon neglected to put thought into was the fact that the British had the world's strongest and largest Navy. .
What also helped the British recover from this crisis was the French Empire itself. One good way to describe how is to quote Steven Englund: "But France, and more importantly, the rest of Europe, suffered worse than Britain did from this economic war. For Napoleon and his advisors were missing two things: first, the degree to which the Continent retained its taste, almost its dependence on, British goods. When push came to shove, many Europeans, including Napoleon's own family, were not willing to forgo coffee, spices, and dyes to suit His Majesty's policies. "Your blockade doesn't block, " wrote a Swiss pro-English economist. Legal and illegal trade flourished; the Empire's most respectable bankers, merchants, industrialists, and courtiers were up to their hips in fraud (Englund 367). " France was not the only country that had problems with the Continental System; all who aligned themselves with Napoleon, whether by choice or not, suffered. Portugal openly refused to join the Blockade and when Napoleon failed to capture the Royal family they fled to Brazil and left an angry nation in their stead which rebelled against Napoleon, with help from the British. Russia, after facing economic ruin, turned its back on its ally, Napoleon, in 1812 and joined the Quadruple Alliance to defeat him.
Of course, Napoleon made his own struggles worse with his trading licenses.
