Napoleon's economic war against British trade

The Continental System is presented as an early example of Napoleon trying to break Britain without understanding how maritime commerce worked. The policy sought to close continental markets to a country caricatured as a nation of shopkeepers. It depended on European states enforcing an economic barrier against trade that British sea power could redirect and sustain. This connects the Trafalgar campaign to Napoleon's wider habit of underestimating naval and commercial realities.