SMUGGLING, originally and strictly a crime of commerce, a violation of cus toms laws, to be distinguished from such a crime of manufacture as illicit distilla tion, which violates excise laws. But the term is commonly applied also to the eva sive manufacture and disposal of com modities liable to excise as well as to the clandestine importation of articles on which customs duties have been imposed. Defrauding the government of revenue by the evasion of customs duties or excise taxes may therefore serve as a definition.
Smuggling, in the sense of evading cus toms 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 Scotch counties on the Solway were long demoralized by unwise tariffs on articles of import from abroad.
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 activ ity, used to be large, and were introduced by smugglers to the interior of Spain. The injudicious tariffs which used to be imposed by both England and France en couraged 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 intro duced into France chiefly by the Belgian frontier, and dogs were trained to convey them; a dog would convey goods worth from $100 to $250. A great historical outburst of smuggling was the answer which commercial enterprise gave to Na poleon's Berlin and Milan decrees. Silk from Italy reached England by Smyrna after being a year on passage, by Arch angel after being two years. Cotton twist, coffee, sugar, tobacco, were shipped from England to Salonica, conveyed thence by mules and horses through Ser via and Hungary to Vienna, and distrib uted over the Continent from that capital. Coffee from London would reach Calais by Vienna.