with smuggling, take for example a single tub of spirits ; its cost in France was from ten shillings and sixpence to thirteen shillings-fourteen to sixteen shillings would be thought dear. A tub of spirits contained three and a half gallons of spirit so much over-proof that it would bear the addition of two and a half gallons of water, and the six gallons would sell easily for three or even four pounds or guineas. (Our forefathers had a great love for guineas. ) Here was a profit of from four to five hundred per cent ! After paying out of this the cost of transport, wages of the look-out men, &c., the profits were so good, that I have heard it said that if one cargo out of three was saved, there was then a profit.
One wonders now, in these days of enlightened fiscal legislation, how Governments could have been so stupid as to rest satisfied with a state of things so short-sighted. Even the very Custom-house officers themselves smuggled, or at least sent for smuggled goods, and then gave information against, not themselves, but the cargo, for the purpose of receiving the Government allowance for seized goods, this being actually more than the original cost of the goods on the other side of the Channel. I may add that the smugglers had their authorized agents on the other side who managed all their buying transactions. Some people that I have known have acted in that capacity.
