smuggling

Examples of smuggling in the following topics:

• Enforcing the Navigation Acts

  • In some instances, British colonists and foreign merchants subverted the Act; for example in the West Indies, the Dutch kept up a flourishing "smuggling" trade due to the preference of English planters for Dutch goods and the better deal the Dutch offered in the sugar trade.
  • This enabled the Dutch to conduct their "smuggling" unhindered as long as they were not caught red-handed in territorial waters controlled by England.
  • Colonists widely flouted the Acts, and efforts by the British to prevent smuggling created hostility and caused colonial unrest.
  • The Molasses Act led to extensive smuggling, as no effective means of enforcement was provided until the 1750s.

• British Taxes and Colonial Grievances

  • He allowed customs officers to obtain general writs of assistance, which allowed officers to search random houses for smuggled goods.
  • Grenville thought that if profits from smuggled goods could be directed towards Britain, the money could help pay off debts.

• The Mercantalist System

  • The government had to fight smuggling—which became a favorite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions against trading with the French, Spanish, or Dutch.
  • This led to friction between colonists and mainland England; indeed, these mercantilist policies (such as forbidding trade with other empires and controls over smuggling) were a major irritant that would contribute to the American Revolution.

• Navigation Acts

  • For the most part the Acts of Trade and Navigation were obeyed, with the exception of the Molasses Act of 1733 This law proved to be a great temptation encouraging extensive smuggling because the law provided no effective means of enforcement until the 1750s.
  • Instead smuggling, bribery or intimidation of customs officials effectively nullified the law, while aligning the colonies against their parent nation.
  • New England ports especially suffered economic losses from the Sugar Act, as the stricter enforcement made smuggling molasses more dangerous and risky.

• Confederate Politics

  • Vance insisted that a portion of supplies smuggled into North Carolina by blockade runners be given to the state, despite need elsewhere.

• Trade and Economy

  • The government had to fight smuggling, especially by American merchants, some of whose activities (which included direct trade with the French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese) were classified as such by the Navigation Acts.

• Mill Towns and Company Towns

  • Beginning with technological information smuggled out of England by Francis Cabot Lowell, large mills were established in New England in the early- to mid-19th century.

• The Townshend Acts

  • The Sons of Liberty also helped protect the smuggling actions of the merchants; smuggling was crucial for the colonists’ ability to maintain their boycott of British goods.
  • He was also one of the many prominent merchants who had made their fortunes by smuggling, which was rampant in the colonial seaports.

• Global Crime

  • The most commonly seen transnational organized crimes are money laundering; human smuggling; cyber crime; and trafficking of humans, drugs, weapons, endangered species, body parts, or nuclear material.

• Exporting

  • Smuggled goods must also be included in the export measurement.