Insightful and interesting comments, cogently presented.
As usual.
Thank you.

I am no apologist for the Bonapartistes. I will only say that "wrong" or "ill-advised" policies are not necessarily reflective of venality or evil. A mercantalist, pro-agrarian concept might be wrong, but morally it would strike me as quite defensible.

I will take issue under one heading : France as a quasi-imperial centre to to quasi-colonial Empire. I think we need to take care wiht who is "inside the tent" and who is outside. All annexed départements (including Holland and the Hanse cities), all of the Kingdom of Italy and all of the Kingdom of Naples was a common economic unit - same rules and policies applied to all and no barriers inside the "common market". I dont know about Westphalia (hence my question Digby when he brought of this country). Prussia was an occupied defeated enemy. Iberia was a war zone. I just saw that Berg was also "outside". So if we identify the French Empire as hegemonist, which might be a quite fair characterization, it shoud be seen as including far more than just "old" france of 1791.

Defend Naples east of Smolensk ?
Well, today we are told that we defend New York and London in the highlands of Waziristan. I see no ethical or moral problem with either one (I think ..... give me a while and I might come up with something). Let us hope that our current policy turns out to be less ill-advised than that of Napoléon.