Clandestine Cargo: Smuggling along the Southeast Coast of England

Lively stories of 18th- and 19th-century smuggling ventures along the south coast of England are easy to uncover---especially in Kent and Sussex where the narrow English Channel offered easy access to the riches of continental Europe. Colorful tales of gangs, murder, and fortunes gained and lost are still part of the region's folklore.

Behind this smuggling heyday, however, lies a long history of hardship and bleak prospects for economic improvement that dogged the area during the 1700s and early 1800s, creating ripe ground for a culture of "free trade" between England and the Continent.

Smuggling along the coast may have begun as early as the 13th century when King Edward I created one of the earliest known export taxes, imposed on wool sold across England's borders. This levy served to replenish the king's treasury, which had dwindled precipitously owing to internal strife during the reign of his father, King Henry III; but the tax also cut into the profits of the area's primary source of income, and soon cargos of wool were stealthily shipped across the channel by bands of smugglers. The king recruited a small customs staff to collect the duty at officially appointed ports but paid little attention to the secret exports from the Kent and Sussex coastlines.

By the 1700s both import customs duties and export taxes were commonplace. These revenues were needed to bankroll wars and defense operations throughout Great Britain. The government also sought to protect home industry by restricting the export of certain items, including wool. As a result of the increasingly inflated price of imported commodities such as tea, liquor, and woven goods and the decreasing profits from wool and other local industries, smuggling became a full-blown business. Contraband operations crossed class lines, creating profits and a better standard of living for common people, merchants, and gentry alike, with the result that "free-traders" were often respected locally as public benefactors. Illegal trade became so widely accepted that whole villages were involved and roadways were apportioned for smugglers and their wares. While a hierarchy of customs officials and excisemen was created to stem the flow of illegal goods, some of these government officials were amenable to bribes from the smugglers---especially in areas where the pursuit of their duty was made difficult and hazardous by widespread local opposition to it. Not every resident in every area town supported the smugglers, but very few supported the excisemen.

Smuggling became a highly organized operation in the southeast, often financed by London merchants and powerful landowners. Because the stakes were high (during much of the 1700s and 1800s smuggling was punishable by death) and the cargos costly, armed gangs often oversaw the transport and sale of the imported and exported goods. Large numbers of men with weapons would line the beaches as ships were unloaded, sometimes observed by the area's small revenue forces who were powerless to stop the operation.

The Kent and Sussex gangs gained a fearsome reputation and were known for their violence toward all who opposed them. The Mayfield gang was one of the earliest known organized groups. It successfully ran contraband off the coast of East Sussex during the early 1700s (it is estimated that over 11 tons of tea and coffee were handled a year) until its leader, Gabriel Tomkins, was captured and convicted in 1721. Reputedly a wily character, Tomkins testified about his own smuggling operations before an official inquiry into corruption in the customs services and was rewarded by being given a post as a customs officer himself.

By 1730 many gangs of smugglers peppered the region. The Hawkhurst gang dominated the landscape during the 1740s. They reportedly organized the forces of other regional gangs and aligned with area gentry who offered their land and buildings for use as the smugglers' base camps, landing sites, and storerooms.

Later, the impressive smuggling operations from the east Kent town of Deal became worrisome for customs officials. Deal boatbuilders perfected a style of lightweight galley, capable of making very quick runs across the channel and of negotiating waters too shallow for revenue cutters to follow. In January 1784 the Deal fleet was burned by order of Prime Minister William Pitt, but this proved to be only a brief solution to the area's illegal activity.

At the close of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British government was free to turn its attention to thwarting the coastal smugglers. The Coast Blockade Service established a successful shore patrol in 1816 that substantially increased the difficulty of landing smuggled goods and the hazard to smugglers who persisted in trying. In 1831 the Coastguard Service took over from the Coast Blockade; by 1845 its vigilance, together with repealed or reduced import duties on many items, enabled the coast guard to report that smuggling in the region had been effectively eliminated.