The 1701 Act (named for the year it actually became effective) backfired, for three reasons. First, calicoes became forbidden fruit, and thus even more desirable. Second, smuggling, the inevitable accompaniment of prohibition, flared up in the years following the act’s passage. In the words of one pamphleteer, “England being an Island, there are a thousand places for putting goods on shore.”51 Though most of the smuggled calicoes were brought in by French and Dutch merchants, no small amount entered England in the private baggage of the EIC’s employees. Third, and worst of all for the weavers,
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