Smuggling

Smuggling, originally and strictly a crime of commerce, a violation of customs laws, to be distinguished from such a crime of manufacture as illicit distillation, which violates excise laws. But the term is commonly applied also to the evasive manufacture and disposal of commodities liable to excise as well as to the clandestine importation of articles on which customs duties have been imposed (see CUSTOMS DUTIES, EXCISE). Defrauding the government of revenue by the evasion of customs duties or excise taxes may therefore serve as a definition. The evasion of customs duties is the prevailing sense of the term in the popular mind, a sense in which there are in all nations stirring stories of smuggling rich in romantic incident. But, in the accepted use of language, the other sense is quite common. A case reported (June 1891) in the leading newspapers, as 'Smuggling in London,' was that of two men brought before a police-court on the charge of defrauding the revenue by illicit distillation in a warehouse in Holborn. A great deal of smuggling of the manufacturing kind is constantly carried on all over Great Britain and Ireland. The government is regularly defrauded of revenue in this way to a far greater amount, it is believed, than it is now by the commercial smuggling reported annually by the commissioners of customs. We read frequently of raids by revenue officers on smuggling bothies in the Highlands of Scotland. In July 1891 an important seizure was reported to have been made in one of the haunts of a smuggling fraternity on the Gairloch, between whom and the people of the Outer Hebrides, where no distilleries exist, a brisk trade in spirits is carried on. But men well qualified to form a correct opinion believe that the revenue is defrauded by illicit distillation all over the country a great deal more than it is in the wild districts of the north. In the manufacturing centres, skilful mechanics make their own utensils and tools for the purpose, and repair and alter them easily. The Highlanders are obviously at a disadvantage in this respect. Since the duty was taken off malt by Mr Gladstone in 1880 there have been facilities for this kind of smuggling which, there is good reason to believe, have been taken advantage of in the cities and manufacturing towns, and an occasional find of the kind is reported. But the revenue of the country is buoyant, and it is not desirable to make too frequent exposure of crimes so obviously created by act of parliament; the chiefs of the excise branch of the inland revenue department do not, accordingly, encourage too curious enquiry on the part of local revenue officers. In these circumstances exact information on the subject is not available.

Smuggling, in the sense of evading customs duties by dealing in contraband goods, has ceased to deserve the name of a trade in the United Kingdom. From about the close of the 17th century to nearly the middle of the 19th century the suppression of that kind of free trade by vigorous methods of prevention engaged the close attention of the inland revenue department. Free trade as a national policy has put down the smuggling trade. Only a very small number of persons comparatively deal in contraband goods now. But when the duties on spirits were higher in England than in Scotland, Northumberland and Cumberland were haunted with smugglers. Haddington and Berwick and the Scottish counties on the Solway were long demoralised by unwise tariffs on articles of import from abroad. Readers of Scott's novels know the effective use he makes of smuggling for the purposes of his art in Guy Mannering and Redgauntlet. Robert Burns was an exciseman, and it was also one of his duties to prevent the smuggling of contraband goods. It is well known how in 1792 he placed himself on one occasion at the head of the revenue officers and a guard of dragoons, waded the Solway sword in hand, was the first to board a smuggling brig, captured the crew, and had the brig sold at Dumfries. It was on that occasion that Burns wrote 'The Deil's awa' wi' the Exciseman.' The exploits of smugglers and coastguardsmen in the frequent and bloody encounters that took place constitute the main interest of many an exciting tale.

The contrabandista used to be one of the most popular characters in Spain. The exports from England to Gibraltar, to refer only to one of his lines of activity, used to be large, and were introduced by smugglers to the interior of Spain. It was remarked fifty years ago or more that it would be nearly impossible to prevent the smuggling of British goods into the United States on the Canadian frontier if the duties on importation were excessive. These duties are now very excessive, and inferences are allowable; but the United States government does not compile statistics of smuggling either by the frontier or by the ports. The injudicious tariffs which used to be imposed by both England and France encouraged smuggling to an enormous extent on both sides of the English Channel; spirits, especially brandy, tea, tobacco, silk goods from France; from England the most important article of illicit trade was cotton-twist. English goods were introduced into France chiefly by the Belgian frontier, and dogs were trained to convey them; a dog would convey goods worth from £20 to £50. There used to be cruel slaughter of these dogs, a reward of three francs being given by the customs authorities for every one seized. A great historical outburst of smuggling was the answer which commercial enterprise gave to Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees. Silk from Italy reached England by Smyrna after being a year on passage, by Archangel after being two years. Cotton-twist, coffee, sugar, tobacco were shipped from England to Salonica, conveyed thence by mules and horses through Servia and Hungary to Vienna, and distributed over the Continent from that capital. Coffee from London would reach Calais by Vienna. The risks and expense raised the price of sugar on the Continent to 6s. a pound.

In 1831 an official report estimated the loss by smuggling to the British revenue as exceeding £800,000 a year (in French brandy to the extent of £500,000). Three-fourths of the tobacco consumed in Ireland was smuggled; the total annual cost of protecting the revenue was then from £700,000 to £800,000. In 1840 it was believed that 48 per cent. of French silks paid no duty. The south coast of England, especially Kent and Sussex, was largely addicted to the smuggling trade with France, by which it was stated that goods to the value of £2,000,000 were conveyed into France from England by the Belgian frontier alone. Till a comparatively recent date the Isle of Man (q.v.) was a great emporium for smuggling into England, Scotland, and Ireland.

In the Cornhill Magazine for June 1891 there is an article on smuggling still carried on across the Swiss-French frontier. Tobacco, sugar, and coffee are smuggled from Switzerland into France; cattle, gunpowder, and household goods from France to Switzerland. 'The smugglers usually pass the frontier,' says the writer, 'by a dangerous passage across the river Doubs and the rocks of its vicinity, called the Saut du Doubs. The perils of this romantically beautiful passage are increased by the darkness, the fear of custom-house officers, and by heavy packages of contraband goods which impede the free use of the limbs. Each man is armed with an alpenstock and a pistol; he carries his burden fastened to his back by a heavy strap which can be detached and the bundle rolled down the adjacent precipice at the first signal of danger and pursuit.' Such is the serious business of men who make smuggling a trade on that frontier. But, in a less risky way, 'wagoners, dogs, travellers, railway officials, and even the custom-house officers themselves are all more or less engaged in smuggling. . . . Ladies, ever alive to the delights of a bargain, are inveterate smugglers.' The writer tells us that the smugglers who make a business of it are admired and aided by the peasants on both sides of the frontier. Morality is popularly regarded as immutable, and tariffs are very mutable. The people never did associate ideas of right and wrong with smuggling in any country. The smuggler was everywhere regarded as a benefactor, because the people believed that he supplied better articles at a cheaper rate than those on which customs or excise duties were paid.

The principal articles liable to duty at present in the United Kingdom are cocoa, coffee, currants, raisins, beer, spirits, wine, tea, tobacco. In the last decade of the century smuggling, judged by the number of cases discovered, greatly decreased. In the year ending 31st March 1898 there were 4255 seizures of all kinds, including 6244 lb. tobacco and cigars and 59 gallons spirits. The total number of convictions was 2424, and the total amount of penalties recovered £4174. These figures may be compared with those for the preceding decade:

Summary cases are disposed of by the magistrates, and are those in which the quantity of tobacco and cigars seized does not exceed 20 lb., of spirits not above five gallons. Larger quantities are dealt with by information and summons as non-summary cases. Of the £7302 of penalties recovered in 1884 £3142 were paid by two parties. It will be seen that the total number of seizures in the year ended 31st March 1890 exceeds those of the previous year by 1164. About 1000 of these were seizures of tobacco in various forms or of spirits. The quantity of tobacco again exceeds that seized in the previous year by 1838 lb.; while of spirits seized there were only 187 gallons as against 535 gallons—a remarkable decrease. The total increase of seizures in the year 1890, therefore, may be taken, so the commissioners say, to consist of small quantities of tobacco or cigars, averaging from 1 lb. to 2 lb. in weight. It will be seen again that while there was an increase of 1203 in the total number of persons prosecuted, there were only 70 non-summary cases in 1889, 56 in 1890, a decrease of 14; and the penalties show an average of £2 a head. The figures, as thus compared, show a large number of attempts to smuggle tobacco in small quantities. This is confirmed by the following curious item of information supplied by the commissioners: 'The larger seizures dealt with by summons and prosecution comprise several instances of the seizure of tobacco-stalks landed from vessels belonging to the royal navy. Tobacco is issued to the crews of H.M. ships of the navy in the form of unmanufactured leaf, and, in preparing it for use, the men remove the mid-rib of the leaf, which they are enjoined by regulations to destroy; the landing of the stalk, formed by the mid-rib when separated from the leaf, being prohibited by law. Under the existing law . . . drawback can be claimed upon snuff produced by grinding up stalks and other tobacco refuse, and a considerable trade has existed in consequence in certain localities, with the intervention of the receivers, between seamen and others employed on board H.M. ships and persons who purchase stalks for the purpose of obtaining drawback upon the snuff produced from them. In several cases prosecutions have been successfully instituted, and it is hoped that a check has been put to this illegal traffic.' The figures show also that tobacco and spirits are now practically the only articles smuggled, and that the quantity of these so dealt with is comparatively infinitesimal.

See W. D. Chester, Chronicles of the Customs Department (1885); Lieut. H. N. Shore, Smuggling Days and Smuggling Ways (1892); also the articles COASTGUARD, TAXATION.