ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concepts involved in economic warfare, and the issues considered before 1914. It examines contemporary views on the vulnerability of British food supplies and raw materials, as expressed among others by the Jeune Ecole and the Royal Commission chaired by Balfour of Burghley. The chapter analyses British attitudes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries towards the legal issues of naval and economic blockade in their relevance to Britain both as a trading nation and as a belligerent. The concern about the vulnerability of Britain's supply of food and raw materials was expressed in the establishment of a Royal Commission in 1903. The outstanding sources of friction were addressed by the powers at the close of the Crimean War. English prize courts had, in theory, adopted the principle that a vessel setting sail with the intention of breaking a blockade might be captured at any stage of her voyage after departure.
