ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how merchants perpetrated their frauds during the mid-sixteenth century. This is based both on the evidence from the merchant account books of John Smyth and the Tyndall brothers and on a number of other records, both public and private in origin, including commercial correspondence, probate documents and Exchequer Court records. For such records can also throw light on the business practices of smugglers. In particular, the letter from William to Robert demonstrates that smugglers could be extremely candid about their activities when writing to a trusted accomplice. That Robert seems to have been unconcerned by such a possibility is presumably a reflection both of the fact that his accounts were not for public consumption and that he felt that it was unlikely that anyone would, or even could, use such records as a basis for a successful prosecution.
