Irish smuggling in the eighteenth century

Abstract

Since the work of Beer, or at least since the studies of Andrews and Harper, no serious historian has failed to recognize that the British mercantile system did not bear too heavily upon the American colonies before 1763. In the first place, some regulations either directly and intentionally, or indirectly and unintentionally, fostered colonial development. In the second place, enforcement was often so lax and evasion so common that a number of regulations Lvere practically inoperative. Yet though the beneficent effects of ‘salutary neglect’ upon the American colonies have long been accepted, writers on Irish history have continued to assume that the mercantile system was applied to Ireland with devastating effectiveness. Was this indeed true? Or was British mercantilism in Ireland mitigated in the same ways as in the overseas colonies —by compensating advantages and by evasion? The present article concerns itself only with the latter point, the question of enforcement and evasion of British restrictions on Irish trade.

The Nation, the State, and the First Industrial Revolution

“…There is mounting evidence of the extent of evasion well into the second half of the eighteenth century, especially on the coasts of the Irish sea, with the Isle of Man playing a pivotal role until 1765. 58 Similarly, union may have created the largest free-trade area in Europe, but its requirement that English standards of weights and measures be applied across Britain was often ignored before the introduction of the "imperial system" in 1824. For example, in Scotland corn often continued to be measured not by the Winchester bushel but by the boll, which varied considerably between Scotland's counties.…”