Rule of 1756

The Rule of 1756 or Rule of the War of 1756 was a policy of the Kingdom of Great Britain, and later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that was promulgated during the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). It ruled that Britain would not trade with neutral nations who were also trading with the enemy.

The rule was devised and approved by the British Admiralty courts, which maintained that if a neutral nation were prohibited from a particular type of trade during peacetime, then it would also be prohibited from the same variety during wartime. The rationale behind this rule was that the neutral nation was aiding the enemy. The rule has never been ratified by international law.^[1]

The rule was one of the causes of the War of 1812.^[2]