Black economy that became the stuff of action-packed fiction

Smuggling grew in popularity in the 18th century, at a time when the government derived a substantial part of its income from customs duties on imported items such as spirits, tea and cloth.

With tax on these products extremely high, smuggled goods were considerably cheaper and provided a good income for many.

A farm labourer could earn more in one night in a smuggling operation than he could earn from a month working in the fields.

Scotland was certainly no stranger to smuggling, with one substantial difference that it also included the illicit distilling of whisky.

Sir Walter Scott’s book Guy Mannering, published in 1815, portrayed a group of smugglers as kidnappers as well as murderers.

He wrote that: “Smuggling was almost universal in Scotland for people unaccustomed to imposts and regarding them as an unjust aggression upon their ancient liberties; made no scruples to elude them where it was possible to do so.”

Another famous Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson, described a landing of contraband in his novel The Master of Ballantrae in 1889: “There, against the sun which was then dipping, we saw the free-traders with a great force of men and horses, scouring the beach.”

It was not until Prime Minister William Pitt reduced duties in the 1780s, that smuggling became less profitable, but the practice did not really die out until further removal of duties took place in the 19th Century.

Author Stevenson