Deep was Armstrong’s disgust when an Imperial Decree[195] appeared, dated July 15, authorizing licenses for thirty American ships to sail from Charleston or New York under the rigorous conditions detailed by this note; but the thirty licenses were merely a beginning. Once having grasped the idea that something must be done for French industry, the Emperor pressed it with his usual energy and with the usual results. During the months of June and July, while annexing Holland to his empire, he worked laboriously on his new commercial system. He created a special Council of Commerce, held meetings as often as twice a week, and issued decrees and orders by dozens. The difficulty of understanding his new method was great, owing to a duplication of orders not unusual with him; the meaning of a public decree was affected by some secret decree or order not made public, and as never failed to happen with his civil affairs, the whole mass became confused. Apparently the new system[196] rested on a decree of July 25, 1810, which forbade any ship whatever to leave a French port for a foreign port without a license; and this license, in the Emperor’s eyes, gave the character of a French ship to the licensed vessel,--“that is to say, in two words, that I will have no neutral vessel; and in fact there is none really neutral,--they are all vessels which violate the blockade and pay ransom to the English.” In other words the Emperor’s scheme was founded on his Berlin and Milan Decree and left them intact except within the operation of the licenses. “For these [licensed] ships,” he said,[197] “the Decrees of Berlin and Milan are null and void; ... my licenses are a tacit privilege of exemption from my decrees, on condition of conforming to the rules prescribed by the said licenses.” The licenses themselves were classified in thirty different series,[198]--for the ocean, the Mediterranean, England, etc.,--and prescribed the cargoes to be carried both on the inward and outward voyages.[199] They made no distinction between neutrals and enemies; the license that authorized a voyage from London was the same, except for its scries, as that which covered a cargo of cotton from Charleston; and such distinction as appeared, was limited to imposing on the neutral additional trouble to prove that his goods were not English. In theory the import of such British merchandise as would relieve England’s distress was forbidden, and the export of French merchandise was encouraged, not only in order to assist French industry, but also in order to drain England of specie. Especially the sugar, coffee, and cotton of the colonies were prohibited; but when captured by privateers or confiscated on land, colonial produce was first admitted to the custom-house at a duty of fifty per cent, and then sold for the benefit of the Imperial treasury.