The article examines the relationship between France and Hamburg in the early 19th century, the experience of E. Mortier’s first occupation of the free city-state, as well as methods of circumventing the continental blockade regime of Napoleon Bonaparte by Hamburg residents. The conclusion is made about the natural flourishing of smuggling among the poor of Hamburg against the background of the ruinous policy of Napoleonic Paris in relation to the free city-state. Despite the trade restrictions dictated by Napoleon and the need to maintain the quartered soldiers of the Grand Army, the reaction of residents to such measures was negative, although it did not cause open unrest.