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Scottish Smugglers
This is the first book to examine the phenomena of smuggling in Scotland in its entirety. It embraces the historical imperatives that made smuggling lucrative, particularly during its 18th century "golden age," looking at the roll of the Act of Union (1707) and Jacobitism in the encouragement and perpetuation of the Scottish smuggling trade. A special chapter is devoted to whisky smuggling, which even embraces the true tale of Whisky Galore and the topic of US Prohibition.
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
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April 17, 2022
Back in the 18th century, Governments didn’t need as much money as they do today and raised most of what they did need through duties on imports and exports, as well as occasionally on production. The duties significantly raised the price of imported products. They also promoted smuggling to the extent that it became a significant economic activity.
I was a little suspicious of this book at the outset, as the author says openly in his Introduction that it “is a mixture of official records, letters, published accounts, fiction, myth, lore and legend.” His justification for including local legends and the like is that the official records only contain the view of the authorities, and this needs to be balanced by the opinions of ordinary people. He has a point, but personally I prefer my history without myth.
I thought the first 3 chapters of the book were pretty good. In the opening one the author takes a general look at 18th century smuggling in Scotland. There was widespread toleration and indeed support for smugglers amongst the public, who did not view smuggling as a moral crime. Excisemen were often obstructed in their duties. Even when smugglers were arrested, the accused would appear before magistrates who were frequently their customers or even actively involved with them, and where necessary witnesses could be bribed or intimidated into silence. In Scotland, the 1707 union with England had a significant effect. Prior to the union, Customs duties in Scotland had been low and indifferently enforced. The country was allowed about a decade of transition before the much higher “British” duties were applied, but when they were the results were informative. The author comments that in 1715-16 the net yield of Customs in Scotland was £17,767, but by 1729-30 it had fallen to £6,481, in a convincing demonstration of what is now known as the Laffer Curve.
The second chapter looks at the main commodities that were smuggled - tobacco, tea, wine and salt, with coal being a Scottish export that was subject to taxation. Then of course, there was whisky, which was subject to duty on its production and which was therefore illegally produced and smuggled within Scotland. Whisky smuggling was on such a large scale that the product gets a chapter to itself, and there was a late flowering of whisky smuggling from Scotland in the 20th century, to supply the American market during Prohibition. The author notes that The Bahamas, a British territory located about 175 miles from Florida, imported less than 1000 gallons of whisky in 1918. Four years later it imported 386,000 gallons.
After these opening chapters the author takes us on a tour of the entire coast of Scotland, looking at the smuggling activity in each location. It’s here that he introduces lots of local legends, and in general I found these chapters rather boring and repetitive. The book finishes with a short chapter on modern day smuggling in Scotland, mainly of course drugs, but also the illegal import of rare animals, and worst of all people smuggling, including sex trafficking. 18th century smugglers have a bit of a romantic image, of small-time operators hiding bottles of claret in secret compartments. That sense of romance does not exist with their modern counterparts.
I found this book interesting in parts, but even though it isn’t long, it could actually have been shorter. The chapters looking at the various geographical locations felt like “filler”.
I was a little suspicious of this book at the outset, as the author says openly in his Introduction that it “is a mixture of official records, letters, published accounts, fiction, myth, lore and legend.” His justification for including local legends and the like is that the official records only contain the view of the authorities, and this needs to be balanced by the opinions of ordinary people. He has a point, but personally I prefer my history without myth.
I thought the first 3 chapters of the book were pretty good. In the opening one the author takes a general look at 18th century smuggling in Scotland. There was widespread toleration and indeed support for smugglers amongst the public, who did not view smuggling as a moral crime. Excisemen were often obstructed in their duties. Even when smugglers were arrested, the accused would appear before magistrates who were frequently their customers or even actively involved with them, and where necessary witnesses could be bribed or intimidated into silence. In Scotland, the 1707 union with England had a significant effect. Prior to the union, Customs duties in Scotland had been low and indifferently enforced. The country was allowed about a decade of transition before the much higher “British” duties were applied, but when they were the results were informative. The author comments that in 1715-16 the net yield of Customs in Scotland was £17,767, but by 1729-30 it had fallen to £6,481, in a convincing demonstration of what is now known as the Laffer Curve.
The second chapter looks at the main commodities that were smuggled - tobacco, tea, wine and salt, with coal being a Scottish export that was subject to taxation. Then of course, there was whisky, which was subject to duty on its production and which was therefore illegally produced and smuggled within Scotland. Whisky smuggling was on such a large scale that the product gets a chapter to itself, and there was a late flowering of whisky smuggling from Scotland in the 20th century, to supply the American market during Prohibition. The author notes that The Bahamas, a British territory located about 175 miles from Florida, imported less than 1000 gallons of whisky in 1918. Four years later it imported 386,000 gallons.
After these opening chapters the author takes us on a tour of the entire coast of Scotland, looking at the smuggling activity in each location. It’s here that he introduces lots of local legends, and in general I found these chapters rather boring and repetitive. The book finishes with a short chapter on modern day smuggling in Scotland, mainly of course drugs, but also the illegal import of rare animals, and worst of all people smuggling, including sex trafficking. 18th century smugglers have a bit of a romantic image, of small-time operators hiding bottles of claret in secret compartments. That sense of romance does not exist with their modern counterparts.
I found this book interesting in parts, but even though it isn’t long, it could actually have been shorter. The chapters looking at the various geographical locations felt like “filler”.
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