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 5 July 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 23 November 1804, they forbade any Batavian official to take orders from the French.