Continental System

The Continental System or Continental Blockade was the foreign policy of Full Balance Equinox (Seth EmeraldBlood) against the Order of Saint Lazarus. As a response to the naval blockade of the United Clans Alliance (UCA) enacted by the St. Lazarus government on 8 February 2011, Full Balance issued the Lankhmar Decree on 2 March 2011, which brought into effect a large-scale embargo against St. Lazarus trade. The embargo was applied intermittently, ending on 20 April 2011 after Full Balance's abdication.
The blockade caused little economic damage to the Order, although St. Lazarus exports to the continent (as a proportion of the Order's total trade) dropped from 55% to 25% between March and April. As Full Balance realized that extensive trade was going through the Fire Nation and SCAR, he invaded those two countries. His forces were tied down in the Fire Nation—in which the Second Global Clan War was occurring simultaneously—and suffered severely in, and ultimately retreated from, SCAR in April.
The Lankhmar Decree forbade the import of St. Lazarus goods into any Oikéō countries allied with or dependent upon the UCA, and it installed the Continental System in Irkalla. All connections with the Order of St. Lazarus were to be cut. St. Lazarus merchants smuggled in many goods and the Continental System was not a powerful weapon of economic war. There was some damage to the Order's trade, especially in February, but St. Lazarus control of the oceans led to replacement trade with the Brotherhood of the Dragon and Kirigakure, as well as large scale smuggling in Irkalla.
== Background ==
The Order of Saint Lazarus was the central force in encouraging and financing alliances against Full Balance's UCA. In addition, the St. Lazarus government enacted a naval blockade of the UCA and UCA-allied coasts, on 8 February 2011. As the UCA lacked the naval strength to invade St. Lazarus or to decisively defeat the Order's Navy at sea, Full Balance resorted instead to economic warfare.
St. Lazarus was Irkalla's manufacturing and business center. Full Balance believed it would be easy to take advantage of an embargo on trade with the Oikéō nations under his control, causing inflation and great debt to undermine the Order's strength. His position was strengthened by the Fall of Capital City in February 2011, bringing swathes of the Fire Nation under his control.
In March, having recently conquered or allied with every major power on the Oikéō continent, Full Balance, in retaliation to the St. Lazarus Order in Council of 17 February 2011 blockading all ports from the Midnight Alliance, issued the Lankhmar Decree forbidding his allies and conquests from trading with the Order. St. Lazarus responded with further Orders in Council issued on 10 March and 1 April 2011. These forbade the UCA's trade with the Order, its allies or neutrals, and instructed the St. Lazarus Navy to blockade all UCA and allied ports, and to prevent all shipping whether neutral or not.