How effective was Napoleon's continental system?

How effective was Napoleon's continental system, and could it have succeeded in forcing Britain to sign a peace with France, if France hadn't lost its continental dominance after Napoleon's defeat in Russia?
 
IMO, it was one of Nap's biggest blunders.

hurt France more than Britain.
hurt other countries so much that they would never be more than a token ally to France.
Didn't hurt Britain enough to back down.

It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but ultimately, it was almost all bad, and very little good.

Portugal/Spain iberian war was a direct result, as was Russia.

Alt world, Nap should have never gone down that road.

if you want to change the Nap wars, CS is a prime candidate for changing.
 
It was always going to be difficult to implement - British sea power prevented its strangulation; France could not control the factors necessary for its success (e.g. corruption levels, local resistance, neutral impact); and an embargo of British goods worked against the self interest of those who had to implement it.

It did have an effect on Britain (e.g. Colonial produce fell in value after 1802) which wasn't resolved until Napoleon opened up Spanish markets by invading. The CS did, however, promote French capitalism and it could be argued that in preventing Europe from being swamped by the produce of a more industrially advanced Britain it enabled the continuation of the European industrial revolution.
 
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