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Preparing for Learning

What words do you associate with this picture?

You can only use words that start with the letters around the corners of this slide.

Prepare for Learning

Listen to the poem by Rudyard Kipling.

What can you pick out from the poem?

What is happening?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8LtOIN1G4I

Agree Learning Outcomes

All: Know the reason why smuggling increased during the 17th century.

Most: Be able to explain the key features of smuggling. (E.g. Who was involved, what was smuggled, how it was organised)

Some: Be able to explain why laws against smuggling were so difficult to enforce.

An illustration from the eighteenth century showing villagers turning to ‘watch the wall’ so that they cannot see the smugglers going past.

For what reasons would villagers turn and face the walls?

Presenting New Information

During the seventeenth century, governments

increased taxes on imported goods to raise extra money. These import duties were unpopular because they

raised the price of valuable goods. They were also very

hard to enforce. With several thousand miles of unguarded

coastline around Britain it was fairly easy to smuggle in goods, and there was a ready

market among people who didn’t see why they should

pay higher prices.Indeed, like poaching, there were many who did not see

smuggling as a crime at all. Many thousands of people were involved in smuggling, and like hundreds of crimes during this

period, the government had made this a capital offence.

Apply to Demonstrate

Why was it so difficult for the government to deal with

smuggling in the 18th century?

(12 marks)

• These answers usually make general comments about smuggling, not about why it was hard to enforce.

1-4 marks

• Answers will describe aspects of smuggling such as how it was carried out or public support for smuggling, but it will not explain why this made it hard to enforce the law.

5-8 marks

• Answers will explain factors making law enforcement difficult, such as methods used by smugglers themselves, support from the population or that smugglers created organised gangs. Each reason will be supported by information.

9-12 marks

Why was it so difficult for the government to deal with smuggling in the 18th century? (12 marks)

Review

Write a poem, 5 lines long and that rhymes, summing up what you have learnt today.

The government raised tax on goods in 1740,Which smugglers thought was quite naughty,They smuggled in tea,Across from the sea,And really hoped they didn’t get caught(y)

SMUGGLING

Which goods are smuggled?

Who are the smugglers?

How well organised are the smugglers?

Do smugglers have much local support?

Why do people become smugglers?

Do people think smuggling is a serious crime?

Extension: In your opinion, what is the best way to stop smuggling? Explain why

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In 1748, 103 people were listed as ‘wanted’ for smuggling. Over 70 per cent of them were labourers, fewer than 10 per cent were small farmers and the rest were tradesmen such as butchers and carpenters. However, wealthy people also took part. Robert Walpole, later Prime Minister, smuggled wine into the country while he was a government minister using a government ship.

For farm labourers it was a quicker and more exciting way to make money than farm labouring. A smuggler could earn six or seven times a farm labourer’s daily wage in one night. Anyone who helped smugglers to carry goods from ship to shore could expect to earn nearly twice a labourer’s daily wage. The result was that farmers had difficulty recruiting workers in some places on the south coast.

Not all smugglers were farm labourers. In Sussex some came from the cloth industry which was declining in the 18th century. Fishing and iron making also employed fewer people than a century earlier.

“…. The generality of the people on the

coasts are better friends to the

smugglers than they are to the Customs House

Officers”

Samuel Wilson, a Sussex grocer who had received

smuggled tea, speaking to a committee of Parliament

in the 1740’s.

“The common people of England in general fancy there is nothing

in the crime of smuggling…the poor feel they have a right to shun paying any duty [tax] on their

goods”

John Taylor, the keeper of Newgate prison, 1747.

“It is extremely dangerous for the Custom House

Officers to attempt to seize (smuggled) goods in the coast counties because

smugglers are very numerous there and can assemble a great number whenever they need. Nine persons in ten in the area

would give them assistance and do lend the smugglers their horses and teams to

convey their goods.

Abraham Walter, a tea dealer who had been a smuggler, speaking to a

committee of Parliament in the 1740’s.

“About 24 smugglers well armed and laden with smuggled goods rode through Rye, Sussex and stopping at the red lion to refresh, fired several times to intimidate the inhabitants and observing one, James Marshall,

a young man too curious of their behaviour, carried him off”

The Gentlemen’s Magazine, 1747

“I have often heard you say and with great truth, that the

common people of this country have no notion that smuggling is a crime. What

then can the government do to show them their error but

to punish the guilty? Accessories are to be

punished as well as [the smugglers themselves] for you know very well that the

common notion in the country is that a man may stand by and see crimes committed

and even assist in them and be unpunished if he does not commit the crimes with his

own hand”

A letter from the Duke of Richmond to Sir Cecil

Bishop, 1749

“As to the charge of smuggling, he owned

that he had been smuggling for many

a great years and did not think there was

any harm in it”

A churchman reporting the words of Richard Mills who was hanged for smuggling

and murder.

The common people of this country do not regard

smuggling as a crime. What then can the government do

to punish the guilty? Accessories [those who assist

in smuggling or let it go without stopping it] should be

punished as well as the smugglers for you know very well that the feeling in this country is that a man may stand by and see crimes

committed and even assist in them and be unpunished if he

doesn’t commit the crimes with his own hands”

A letter from the Duke of Richmond to Sir Cecil

Bishop, 1749

“As to the charge of smuggling, he owned

that he had been smuggling for many

a great years and did not think there was

any harm in it”

A churchman reporting the words of Richard Mills who was hanged for smuggling

and murder.