Smuggling

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=185 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="040b9c00dduajq.jpg"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="70" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 76 WIDTH="66"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="76" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="66" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Falmouth Packet Archives 1688-1850</B></FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Falmouth Packet Archives 16881850"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id173.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Health"><U>Health</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id175.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Steam "><U>Steam </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Freemasonry"><U>Freemasonry</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id188.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="HRH Prince of Wales Masonic Ceremony at"><U>HRH Prince of Wales & Masonic Ceremony at Truro Cathedral 1880 & 1887</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id124.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cartels Prisoners"><U>Cartels & Prisoners</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id115.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lighthouses Navigation"><U>Lighthouses & Navigation</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id109.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Piracy "><U>Piracy </U></A>   |   <B>Smuggling </B>   |   <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Customs Excise"><U>Customs & Excise</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id75.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="British Navy"><U>British Navy</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Merchant Convoys"><U>Merchant Convoys</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="American Navy"><U>American Navy</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="France Navy, Privateers, Convoys"><U>France - Navy, Privateers, Convoys</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id108.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="French Pacquets"><U>French Pacquets</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id149.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Trinity House"><U>Trinity House</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Philatelic "><U>Philatelic </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id129.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Genealogy"><U>Genealogy</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id158.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dress of the Packet era"><U>Dress of the Packet era</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id117.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sailing (Racing)"><U>Sailing (Racing)</U></A></div> <div> Smuggling </div> <div> Being in Government ships, therefore free from Customs & Excise, officers & men made large fortunes by their private contraband trade, export of British manufacture to Spain & Portugal and imports of wine, spirits & tobacco, which they smuggled ashore. In <B>1790-1795,</B> a Packet Captain earned £8 per month in time of war, £5 in peace plus "fees & bullion".  It was possible to earn £1,000 in passenger fees and another £1,000 from private trading.  A thriving trade took place at the nine local taverns and at many local kiddlewinks or Ale Houses. (Refers to Flushing). " no one thought intoxication unbecoming, but rather the mark of a gentleman, as indicative of high breeding" (the higher classes means of indulgence being more ample - "as drunk as a Lord" [qf."the Story of Flushing"by Lady Ursula Redwood (1967)]</div> <bR> <div> For a graphic firsthand account, from which the above appears to be based, read (excerpts from) the <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id127.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="James Silk BUCKINGHAMs capture in 1799"><U>Autobiography of James Silk Buckingham </U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Arthur H. Norway, a former Post Office employee, summarises smuggling and the packet service:</B></div> <bR> <div> "Allusions have been made in this work, to the fact that all Packets throughout the last century (1700-1800) carried goods.  This practice was expressly forbidden by a statute of Charles 11.; but it does not appear that the prohibition had ever been enforced. <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(p.93)</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Mr. Freeling stated that he had been unable to trace the steps by which the trade had developed itself in the teeth of the statute, and that in his opinion the custom was<B> "</B><I><B>coeval with the Packet Service itself</B></I><B>"</B>.  The trade was certainly of antiquity sufficient to have struck deep roots <B>at Falmouth.  It was carried on without the slightest concealment</B>; and was indeed expressly sanctioned by the Government, though it remained, as it had always been, illegal.  </div> <bR> <div> In reports on the capture of Packets, the presence of goods on board the vessel was set down with no more comment than that of provisions.  Indeed, so recently as in<B> 1798</B>, in a code of new regulations applicable to the Packet station <B>at Falmouth, the trade had been explicitly recognised - the only instruction given to the agent was that he must satisfy himself that no Packet carried so large a quantity of goods, or stowed them in such a manner, as to put her out of trim</B>. <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(p.94)</FONT></div> <bR> <div> The Post-Office had always looked unfavourably on this trade; and from time to time sought the assistance of the Treasury in abolishing it, and restricting the Packets to their proper use.  But in these days of constant war ... <B>the Government held it would be inopportune to stop a commercial outlet on which many </B><B><U>merchants of Bristol</U></B><B> and other towns in the west depended for a chief part of their trade;</B>  and so the irregular system went on and grew unchecked. <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(p.94)</FONT></div> <bR> <div> On the Lisbon station the trade seems to have been more important than on the West India boats - though very profitable on both.  </div> <div> The West India boats carried out <B>cheese, potatoes, boots</B> and <B>shoes</B> and - <B>fighting cocks,</B> for which there was a brisk demand.  The Lisbon boats carried every kind of manufactured goods, often to the value of £4,000.  These were by no means the speculations of the captain or of the officers alone.  The seamen traded, each on his own account.  Every man had his own stowage space reserved under the ceiling ("ceiling" is a nautical term meaning "floor") of the forecastle.  Here his "ventures" were suspended, and no one claimed to interfere with them.  <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(p.95) </FONT> [ Norway seems to have confused "ceiling" with "Deck-head." - either goods were stowed under the ceiling, or floor of the Forecastle, and possibly subject to damage from bilge water, or, suspended from the deck-head, to keep dry - which seems more probable.]</div> <bR> <div> Seaman's ventures were sometimes sold on commission, entrusted to him by some merchant, or on his own behalf.  The goods once sold in foreign ports, others were of course purchased there.  Silks, wines, tobacco, numberless things which by a little ingenuity could be smuggled into Falmouth duty free; and in order to facilitate disposing of these imported bargains, <B>a whole corps of female peddlers was in existence,</B> locally named "<I>troachers</I>", who hawked about the goods of Jamaica or New York from farm house to country mansion. <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(p.95)</FONT></div> <bR> <div> To most seamen, this trade was of great value and formed a chief inducement to enter the (Packet) Service, for wages were very low and would not of themselves have attracted men away from the Revenue Service or the Royal Navy.  <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(p.95)</FONT></div> <div> <I>The Post Office Packet Service, </I>by Arthur H. Norway, published in 1895, is available at the <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id105.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="C.L.S.L."><U>Cornish Studies Library</U></A></FONT>, Redruth.</div> <bR> <div> <B>References to smuggling</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" > during the packet era are many, including;</FONT></div> <bR> <div> (Post 1. 13 p.884) 21/2/<B>1787</B> "Smuggling <A NAME="smuggling"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A>" Re: <I>Greyhound</I>, Captain Dunn.</div> <div> 47 cases of Gin and 10 cases of Hock were taken on board at St. Eustacio and seized at Jamaica.</div> <div> (Benjamin Pender) Agent at Falmouth to send Capt. Dunn as on his return from the Leeward Islands to answer the complaint of Mr. Stiles. "<I>If he cannot give a satisfactory explanation he will be dismissed"</I></div> <div> Log book shows that he called at St. Eustacio to pick up the pilot to Tortola.  The case was brought by Customs against Capt. Dunn in court at Jamaica.  Dunn was acquitted by the jury - to acclamation of the audience!  </div> <div> - A letter from <B>Francis Dashwood</B>, GPO Kingston (Jamaica), who was in bed with bilious fever for more than a week and could not secure the release of the packet or stop the prosecution.</div> <div> 10 September 1786, case withdrawn by Robert Sewell.(?)</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Captain Dunn's letter of explanation - giving dates of arrival and departure from Barbados, St. Vincent's, Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Eustacius and Kingston, Jamaica</FONT>  [see p11 - 13 at the back of PHIL A/2/1]</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Extracts from "<I>Samuel Kelly, an Eighteenth Century Seaman</I>"</div> <bR> <div> "On my return to Falmouth, being much attached to <B>the sailing-master,</B> Mr. C. Spurrier (who had taken me under his protection to instruct me in navigation, and who <B>employed me to sell his Adventures on shore in the islands</B>), on his leaving the [packet]<I>Thynne</I>, I also quitted her, and we both shipped ourselves in the <I>Grenville,</I> Captain James Nankivel, a contract packet, three of which were provided by a Captain Stewart of Milor <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(sic)</FONT>, under contract with the Post Office.  In this ship we sailed for the Leeward Islands the 20th October <B>1781</B>. Previous to this date, I was on a voyage in this ship [<I>Grenville</I>] in company with the <I>Dashwood</I> for Charlestown and <I>Roebuck</I> for Jamaica, it being usual for several packets to sail at the same time for mutual defense, in case of attack when crossing the Bay of Biscay."</div> <bR> <div> ...."As we drew near to Scilly an alarm was given by the mate (Evans) that he had discovered the light on St. Agnes and by its appearance was afraid we were not far from the rocks.  .... We now drew near to Falmouth, and the passengers made me a present of about £4." </div> <div> [a considerable gratuity!]</div> <bR> <div> ...... "About the beginning of July<B> 1781</B>, we drew near the land, and the wind was now got to the westward and blowing a stiff gale, it was judged prudent to bear up for Plymouth Sound, to land the mail and passengers.  We anchored in the sound about mid-day, and the captain, after landing the mail and passengers, proceeded by land to Falmouth, leaving Mr. Briton, the sailing-master, in charge to proceed home with the ship the first fair wind.Whilst we lay here <B>our officer went on shore to Cawsand, </B><B><U>to purchase spirits</U></B><U>,</U> and I was surprised to see <B><U>this contraband article</U></B> carried through the streets in open day, as if in defiance of the laws of the country, and  <A NAME="soldiers_smuggling"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><B>even the soldiers from the camp on the neighbouring height were the porters to carry about the kegs of brandy and Geneva here</B>.  In this port [Plymouth] women frequently ply in boats, as watermen, which I believe is scarcely the case in any other part of Britain."</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Whilst packets were seemingly 'protected' regular sales of captured contraband were advertised in almost every port in Cornwall, such as:</div> <bR> <div> RCG* 18/9/<B>1802: </B>Port of Falmouth, to be sold at the <I><B>Dolphin Tavern </B></I><B>on the quay</B>; [Customs House Quay, Falmouth]</div> <div> <U>2588     Gals     Brandy</U>          21     lbs     Short Cut Tobacco</div> <div> <U>650     Gals     Geneva     </U>     <U>471     lbs     Shag Tobacco</U></div> <div> 2     Gals     Wine          <U>639     lbs     Roll Tobacco</U></div> <div> 2     Gals     Compounds     11     lbs     Unmanufactured  "</div> <div> 9     Gals     Rum          </div> <div> Broken Up Hulls of <I>Unity</I> & <I>Tryall </I>sloops, & 3 open boats.                      </div> <div> *<I>Royal Cornwall Gazette,</I> available at the <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id101.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="RIC"><U>RIC</U></A> </FONT>(Truro) </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lord BYRON "><U>Lord Byron</U></A> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>implies smuggling was de rigeur, even for packet captains...</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> To Francis Hodgson,  Falmouth June 25th, <B>1809</B>.</div> <div> My Dear Hodgson, </div> <div> Hobhouse, two officer's wives, three children, two waiting maids, ditto [two] subalterns for the troops, three Portuguese esquires, and domestics, in all 19 souls will have sailed in the Lisbon packet with noble <B>Captain Kidd, a gallant commander as ever smuggled an anker of right Nantz. </B>We are going to Lisbon first, because the Malta packet has sailed, d'ye see? From Lisbon to Gibraltar, Malta, Constantinople and "all that".</div> <div> He further emphasises the problem, with a description of the customs inspectors, in his poem.<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >..</FONT></div> <div> <I>Here's a rascal </I></div> <div> <I>Come to task all</I></div> <div> <I>Prying from the custom-house; </I></div> <div> <I>Trunks unpacking </I></div> <div> <I>Cases cracking </I></div> <div> <I>Not a corner for a mouse </I></div> <div> <I>Scapes unsearched amid the racket, </I></div> <div> <I>Ere we sail on board the Packet.</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>The problem came to a head in the year following (1810) when the packet service had to be temporarily moved to Plymouth. The Riot Act was then read in Falmouth after packet crews refused to sail when their perquisites were confiscated by customs officers</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><I>.</I></FONT></div> <bR> <div> FP 18/3/<B>1843</B>: Arrived on Saturday, <I>Ranger</I>, Lt. James H Turner (paid off Plymouth 21 March), from the Brazils.  Left Rio 22 January 1843, on freight £17,000 in gold & diamonds.</div> <div> Three of the crew of H. M. Packet <I>Ranger </I>were convicted of having attempted to smuggle a small quantity of foreign tobacco (upon their return to Falmouth), fined 2s 6d and costs, in default of payment, two of them were committed to the Falmouth Town Gaol.</div> <bR> <div> <B>============= to be repositioned</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> Whether the English commerce does not bring in money, or whether the government sends it out after it is brought in, is a matter which the parties concerned can best explain; but that the deficiency exists, is not in the power of either to disprove. While Dr. Price, Mr. Eden, (now Auckland), Mr. Chalmers, and others, were debating whether the quantity of money in England was greater or less than at the Revolution, the circumstance was not adverted to, that since the Revolution, there cannot have been less than four hundred millions sterling imported into Europe; and therefore the quantity in England ought at least to have been four times greater than it was at the Revolution, to be on a proportion with Europe. <B>What England is now doing by paper, is what she would have been able to do by solid money, if gold and silver had come into the nation in the proportion it ought,</B> or had not been sent out; and she is endeavouring to restore by paper, the balance she has lost by money. <B>It is certain, that the gold and silver which arrive annually in the register-ships to Spain and Portugal,</B><B><U> do not remain in those countries *</U></B><B>.</B> Taking the value half in gold and half in silver, it is about <B>four hundred tons annually</B>; and from the number of ships and galloons employed in the trade of bringing those metals from <B>South-America to Portugal and Spain,</B> the quantity sufficiently proves itself, without referring to the registers. </div> <div> In the situation England now is, it is impossible she can increase in money. High taxes not only lessen the property of the individuals, but they lessen also the money capital of the nation, by inducing smuggling, which can only be carried on by gold and silver. By the politics which the British Government have carried on with the Inland Powers of Germany and the Continent, it has made an enemy of all the Maritime Powers, and is therefore obliged to keep up a large navy; but though the navy is built in England, the naval stores must be purchased from abroad, and that from countries where the greatest part must be paid for in gold and silver. Some fallacious rumours have been set afloat in England to induce a belief in money, and, among others, that of the French refugees bringing great quantities. The idea is ridiculous. The general part of the money in France is silver; and it would take upwards of twenty of the largest broad wheel wagons, with ten horses each, to remove one million sterling of silver. Is it then to be supposed, that a few people fleeing on horseback or in post-chaises, in a secret manner, and having the French Custom- House to pass, and the sea to cross, could bring even a sufficiency for their own expenses? </div> <div> When millions of money are spoken of, it should be recollected, that such sums can only accumulate in a country by slow degrees, and a long procession of time. The most frugal system that England could now adopt, would not recover in a century the balance she has lost in money since the commencement of the Hanover succession. She is seventy millions behind France, and she must be in some considerable proportion behind every country in Europe, because the returns of the English mint do not show an increase of money, while the registers of Lisbon and Cadiz show a European increase of between three and four hundred millions sterling. </div> <div> <B>* </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" >See an excellent 1997 thesis by Ernst Pijning [Ernst's consent to publish is needed and awaited]</FONT></div> <div> My dissertation focuses on contraband in the eighteenth century, with special reference to Rio de Janeiro and the South Atlantic..</div> <div> The social status of participants in such trade determined the extent to which they were allowed to engage in illegal activities. </div> <div> Administrators who were supposed to combat contraband trade often became interested intermediaries.</div> <div> Contraband trade has not been extensively studied. </div> <div> There is a rich literature of tales of derring-do by smugglers but it is devoid of analysis and often of questionable historical accuracy</div> <div> By law no goods could legally be exported to Brazil without passing through the customs house of a Portuguese port, i.e. In Lisbon and Porto for most practical purposes. Furthermore, all unauthorized bullion exports were an essential part of the Portuguese economy, since they enabled Portugal to offset what would have been an even more negative balance of trade with most other European nations.</div> <div> In order to regulate this illegal commerce, Portugal conceded privileges to certain nations. One such ruling was that <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>a packet boat could sail from Falmouth to Lisbon and vice versa without being inspected and thus could freely transport large quantities of gold to England.</B></FONT>  Gold exports between Lisbon and Falmouth were prohibited, but the crown issued licenses so that they could officially occur.</div> <div> The nations providing the most military support, namely Britain and the Netherlands, enjoyed a favored nation status and enjoyed more extensive privileges than, for instance, France. Britain and the Netherlands claimed the prerogative to engage in illegal trade to Portugal and its colonies in recognition of the military protection that they provided. Moreover, foreign authors asserted their moral superiority over a backward country such as Portugal in order to legitimize their illegal actions.</div> <bR> <div> Ernst, referring to Rio de Janeiro, (Tho it could as well be Lisbon), says:  </div> <div> The military, the customs, and the Municipal Council had jurisdictions over certain areas designated as specific to particular types of trade. <B>The most contested area was the waterfront,</B> to which all three groups laid claim. On the waterfront converged peddlers, merchants, fishermen, soldiers, slaves, seamen of coastal vessels, foreign sailors, and officials, most of whom were <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>open to any opportunity to engage in contraband.</B></FONT> Any control that an administrator could exercise over such an environment would only add to his income.</div> <div> <U>A century later</U>, as<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id127.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="James Silk BUCKINGHAMs capture in 1799"><U>James Silk Buckingham's autobiography</U></A></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>illustrates, nothing had changed, in Lisbon especially<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >.</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>