ABSTRACT
This chapter describes William Culliford's assessment of the administrative practices of each port inspected and his judgment on the levels of probity and efficiency of individual officers. Culliford concluded his report by testifying that he had carried out his investigations quite impartially with only the interest of the Kings service guiding him. Indeed, as well as uncovering corruption, negligence and inefficiency in every port he visited, Culliford was ruthless in charging officers, however senior and well entrenched in local communities. Culliford provides powerful proof that the success of illicit trading in the provinces depended to a great extent on the inefficiency and corruption of customs officers at all levels. In particular Culliford demonstrated the nature and extent of frauds in the tobacco trade especially the submission of false claims over debentures and damaged goods. Alongside traditional illicit trading on a comparatively small scale, committed by otherwise respectable citizens and individual smugglers, law-breaking on an altogether more brutal and large-scale developed.
