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Fraudulent Tradingof France and her allies, was theoretically as safe as in hismother's arms. O f course, the captain of the smuggling vesselhad to pledge his sacred oath on each contradictory set ofpapers—but honor is a very negotiable security in time of19war.In 1807, 2,606 such licenses were issued by the Britishgovernment. In 1808, the number was 4,910; in 1809, 15,226;and in 1810, 18,356! In 1811, the number of licenses fell offvery sharply to a mere 7,602 because in that year the ContinentalSystem reached its peak of efficiency and all British tradelanguished. After 1811, the decline of Napoleon's power andinfluence mad e licenses superfluous. 20Today we don't know much about the license trade beyondits general outlines—smugglers rarely write memoirs—and perhapswe will never know what portion of the licensed vesselswhich went to Russia posed as American or what portion ofthem were American. W e do know that four-fifths of thelicensed vessels went to the North German, Scandinavian, andRussian ports, 21 and there are literally heaps of evidence that anappreciable portion of these claimed American nationality. It istherefore just—in a bitter-sweet way—that man y of the shipsissued British licenses to trade with the United States whe nexports to Britain were embargoed by the United States governmentdisguised themselves as Russians. O f the fifty-fivevessels, almost all British owned, licensed to smuggle timberand other naval stores out of the United States after 1 July1810, perhaps as man y as twenty flew the Russian flag. 22Th e one ingredient that mad e England's license trade possiblewas her supremacy on the high seas. In the words ofAdmiral Alfred Mahan , the greatest scholar of the maritime117