Editing Smuggling (section)

== History ==
Smuggling has a long and controversial history, probably dating back to the first time at which duties were imposed in any form, or any attempt was made to prohibit a form of [[traffic]]. Smuggling is often associated with efforts by authorities to prevent the [[importation]] of certain [[contraband]] items or non-taxed goods; however, there has also been smuggling based on illegally exporting goods. In England smuggling first became a recognised problem in the 13th century, following the creation of a national customs collection system by [[Edward I]] in 1275.<ref>[[N.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;B. Gras]], ''The Early English Customs System'' (OUP, 1918)</ref> Medieval smuggling tended to focus on the export of highly taxed export goods — notably wool and hides.<ref>N.J. Williams, ''Contraband Cargoes: Seven Centuries of Smuggling'' (London, 1959)</ref> Merchants also, however, sometimes smuggled other goods to circumvent prohibitions or embargoes on particular trades. Grain, for instance, was usually prohibited from export, unless prices were low, because of fears that grain exports would raise the price of food in England and thus cause food shortages and civil unrest. Following the loss of [[Gascony]] to the French in 1453, imports of wine were also sometimes embargoed during wars to try to deprive the French of the revenues that could be earned from their main export.

Most studies of historical smuggling have been based on official sources — such as court records, or the letters of Revenue Officers. A senior academic of the University of Bristol states that they only detail the activities of those dumb enough to get caught.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2012/8591.html|title=Bristol University - News - 2012: Illicit Economy|access-date=1 March 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104045853/http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2012/8591.html|archive-date=4 November 2014}} [http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/person/Evan.Jones Dr Evan Jones]</ref> This has led him and others, such as Prof. H. V. Bowen of the University of Swansea to use commercial records to reconstruct smuggling businesses.<ref>[http://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/academic/artshumanities/hc/bowenh/ Huw V. Bowen], ‘Privilege and Profit: Commanders of East Indiamen as Private Traders, Entrepreneurs and Smugglers, 1760–1813’, ''International Journal of Maritime History'', 19/2 (2007), pp. 43–88.</ref> Jones' study focuses on smuggling in Bristol in the mid-16th century, arguing that the illicit export of goods like grain and leather represented a significant part of the city's business, with many members of the civic elite engaging in it, whether by disguised/hidden transport or mis-description of goods.<ref>E. T. Jones, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121130223937/http://rose.bris.ac.uk/handle/1983/870 'Illicit business: accounting for smuggling in mid-sixteenth century Bristol'], ''Economic History Review'', 54 (2001); E. T. Jones, ''Inside the Illicit Economy: Reconstructing the Smugglers' Trade of Sixteenth Century Bristol'' (Ashgate, June 2012)</ref> Grain smuggling by members of the civic elite, often working closely with corrupt customs officers, has also been shown to have been prevalent in East Anglia during the later 16th century.<ref>N. J. Williams, ‘Francis Shaxton and the Elizabethan port books’, ''English Historical Review'' 66 (1951)</ref>

In England wool was smuggled to the continent in the 17th century, under the pressure of high [[excise tax]]es. In 1724 [[Daniel Defoe]] wrote of [[Lymington]], Hampshire, on the south coast of England
<blockquote>I do not find they have any foreign commerce, except it be what we call smuggling and roguing; which I may say, is the reigning commerce of all this part of the English coast, from the mouth of the Thames to the Land's End in Cornwall.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Defoe |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Defoe |title=A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain: Letter III |location=London |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp;jsessionid=599353F4B6E0E91836EF2FD76CC08568?t_id=Defoe&c_id=10 |access-date=13 May 2013 |year=1724 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150602075502/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp;jsessionid=599353F4B6E0E91836EF2FD76CC08568?t_id=Defoe&c_id=10 |archive-date=2 June 2015 }}</ref></blockquote>

The high rates of duty levied on tea and also wine and spirits, and other luxury goods coming in from mainland [[Europe]] at this time made the clandestine import of such goods and the evasion of the duty a highly profitable venture for impoverished fishermen and seafarers. In certain parts of the country such as the [[Romney Marsh]], [[East Kent]], [[Cornwall]] and East [[Cleveland, England|Cleveland]], the smuggling industry was for many communities more economically significant than legal activities such as farming and fishing. The principal reason for the high duty was the need for the government to finance a number of extremely expensive [[war]]s with France and the United States.

[[File:John Phillip (1817-67) - The Dying Contrabandista - RCIN 404562 - Royal Collection.jpg|thumb|''[[The Dying Contrabandista]]'' by [[John Phillip]], 1858]]
Before the era of drug smuggling and human trafficking, smuggling had acquired a kind of nostalgic romanticism, in the vein of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''Kidnapped'':

<blockquote>Few places on the British coast did not claim to be the haunts of wreckers or mooncussers.<ref>The darkness of a moonless night aided furtive movement.</ref> The thievery was boasted about and romanticized until it seemed a kind of heroism. It did not have any taint of criminality and the whole of the south coast had pockets vying with one another over whose smugglers were the darkest or most daring. ''The Smugglers Inn'' was one of the commonest names for a bar on the coast.<ref>Paul Theroux, ''The Kingdom by the Sea'', 1983:84.</ref></blockquote>

In [[North America]], smuggling in [[Townshend Acts|colonial times]] was a reaction to the heavy taxes and regulations imposed by mercantilist trade policies. After [[American Revolution|American independence]] in 1783, smuggling developed at the edges of the United States at places like [[Passamaquoddy Bay]], [[St. Marys, Georgia|St. Mary's]] in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Lake Champlain]], and [[Louisiana]]. During [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s [[Embargo Act of 1807|embargo of 1807-1809]], these same places became the primary places where goods were smuggled out of the nation in defiance of the law. Like Britain, a gradual liberalization of trade laws as part of the [[free trade]] movement meant less smuggling. in 1907 President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] tried to cut down on smuggling by establishing the [[Roosevelt Reservation]] along the [[United States-Mexico Border]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/arizona/Documents/Biol_Opin/080011_LukevillePrimaryFence.pdf|title=Biological Opinion for the Proposed Installation of 5.2 Miles of Primary Fence near Lukeville, Arizona|last=Spangle|first=Steven L.|date=2008-02-11|publisher=[[U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]]|page=3|access-date=2008-10-11|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028203625/http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/arizona/Documents/Biol_Opin/080011_LukevillePrimaryFence.pdf|archive-date=2008-10-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL33659.pdf|title=Border Security: Barriers Along the U.S. International Border|last=Nuñez-Neto|first=Blas|author2=Kim, Yule|date=2008-05-14|publisher=Federation of American Scientists|page=24|access-date=2008-10-11|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011002103/http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL33659.pdf|archive-date=2008-10-11}}</ref> Smuggling revived in the 1920s during [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]], and drug smuggling became a major problem after 1970. In the 1990s, when economic sanctions were imposed on [[Serbia]], a large percent of the population lived off smuggling petrol and consumer goods from neighboring countries. The state unofficially allowed this to continue or otherwise the entire economy would have collapsed.

In modern times, as many [[First World|first-world countries]] have struggled to contain a rising influx of immigrants, the smuggling of people across national borders has become a lucrative extra-legal activity, as well as the extremely dark side, people-trafficking, especially of women who may be enslaved typically as prostitutes.