From the moment governments began making money from levying duty on imported goods, a smuggling trade developed to avoid paying such taxes. Whilst the popular image of smugglers remains an essentially romantic one, this book makes clear that smuggling was a large-scale systematic business that relied on the connivance of well-connected merchants.
'Evan Jones has written a lucid and persuasive study of an increasingly significant aspect of our understanding of the development of English overseas trade.' Pauline Croft in the International Journal of Maritime History 'The book is a welcome and important development of Evan T. Jones's well-received article... One of the key methods Jones employs in the book, and something that represents a valuable contribution to studies of merchants and overseas trade, is his detailed reconstruction of the operations of individual merchants from which he is able to understand their motivations to risk trading illicitly.' History 'All in all this case-study is well written, very well researched and convincing in stating that illicit trade was ubiquitous in sixteenth century Bristol, and probable in the other English port cities.' Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis '... there is some very rewarding material in this book, on smuggling itself, its necessity and incentives, in the problems faced by government and its attempts to overcome them and on the implication of the dark figure inherent in smuggling for our knowledge of the sixteenth-century economy.' Journal of British Studies 'His thoughtful approach and clear presentation open an unprecedented window upon the smuggling activities of Bristol's mercantile community.' Urban History
