Why couldn“t Napoleon build a navy to rival the British when he controlled most of Europe?

by Infogamethrow

It really seems like he would have all the resources and manpower needed to crank out ships, so how did the British maintain naval supremacy?

jschooltiger

I've written about this before.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2709jm/how_would_a_britishhms_frigate_built_in_1715/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4xurpx/how_did_napoleon_plan_to_invade_england/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3pn7v5/what_changes_occurred_in_the_construction/

The tl;dr is that what John Keegan calls "the price of admiralty" is extraordinarily expensive -- Napoleon faced many foes on land, and never quite understood the expense of not only shipbuilding, but the time required to train and equip and refit a fleet that would challenge the Royal Navy, while Britain, being protected by its island status, could maintain a fairly small army (relative to the RN) and still effectively form an alliance against Napoleon.