 Another real burden was the economic warfare that Napoleon launched against the British , and which was answered by a British counter @-@ boycott . This was to foreshadow the Continental System which was written into law in 1806 . However already in 1803 it started to somewhat choke off Dutch trade . Ostensibly , the Staatsbewind did its part by prohibiting the import of all enemy goods on July 5 , 1803 . Later it banned cheese exports and butter . These gestures were , however , of little practical effect : in 1804 the volume of general exports to Britain was nearly equal to that in the last year of peace : 1802 . British goods reached Dutch destinations via neutral German ports , or disguised as " American cargo . " The republic was therefore an important " keyhole into Europe " that undermined the economic sanctions against Britain . As the members of the Staatsbewind , and their friends , often profited from this clandestine trade directly , the patience of the French was wearing thin . Matters came to a head when the French commander in the Republic , Auguste de Marmont , ordered in November 1804 that French naval patrols and customs officials were to take over the responsibility for the surveillance of cargoes in Dutch ports , with powers of confiscation without reference to Dutch authorities . This was the last straw for the Staatsbewind . On November 23 , 1804 , they forbade any Batavian official to take orders from the French . 
