In the economic history literature the French and Napoleonic Wars are seen
as a turning point in the process of global market integration. Historical studies
have pointed to the disrupting effects of incipient intra- and intercontinental market
integration. By focussing on the practice of the British licence system and the more or
less covert relations between public institutions and private enterprise across national
borders in circumventing embargos and blockades, this paper pursues two aims: it
will paint a more comprehensive picture of the dimensions of undercover trade, and
delineate some of the strategies which merchants resorted to in order to organise
secret trade, even involving the governments of the two antagonists. It thus reveals the
ability and flexibility of private entrepreneurs to reconnect and restructure broken
trade links even during the wars.