Smuggling during Napoleonic Wars

 As with most wars, soooo much has been written about military tactics and troop movements. But smuggling has long been a British past time.

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I first learned of the British Isles propensity for smuggling way back in the day from a Harlequin historical I don't remember anything else about except she was a smuggler and he was the king's man sent to stop her. It might've taken place more in the Renaissance than Regency, but don't hold me to that.

There are many reasons for smuggling, the foremost being the incredibly high tax on certain goods. Like tea. Think 100%+ tax on the price of tea. The Boston Tea Party, the 1773 Tea Act, those were for us Americans to revolt over. The British decided to smuggle their tea instead.

Smuggled tea might be more expensive but since it wasn't taxed, the extra cost was nominal.

Everything was smuggled during the Napoleonic Wars. Tea, Wool from Englan
d to France, the obligatory French wine and champagne from there to England. The French state was in desperate need of gold for their armies. Smugglers and the Napoleonic Wars - HubPages

Tea Tax resources: When was Tea First Taxed in England? - Boston Tea Party Ships and History of Tea - Taxes and Smuggling In 18th Century England - TEA PARTY GIRL

Wool smuggling, called owling because of the sounds smugglers used to signal each other. This article is from the Middle Ages, but the practice was illegal through the early 1800s. Owling - Wikipedia Also this one. The History of Smuggling in Sussex and Kent – Wadhurst History Society