ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the sort of techniques Bristol's merchant-smugglers employed to conduct their illicit trade. If customs officers were corrupt, they could assist merchants by allowing illicit goods to pass, by under-recording the size of their seizures and by prosecuting their cases in an inadequate manner. In such circumstances, the only real risk that merchants faced would be if a private informer seized the contraband. If informers provided the main threat from below to Bristol's smuggling trade, the principal threat from above came from the Crown. Three main dangers the Crown posed. First, it could increase the statutory penalties on those engaged in the illicit trade, which could potentially raise the costs and risks of smuggling. Second, it might create commissions charged with investigating illicit activity in the port. Third, the Exchequer could seek to change the customs collection system in ways that made illicit trading more difficult, or which reduced the advantages that Bristol merchant-smugglers enjoyed in the trade.
