Sit down.
Enjoy that cup of tea or coffee for just another moment.
Just one more moment, it doesn't have to even be a full minute.
Close your eyes and let it go.
The anger and aggravation, the annoyance at being up so damn early. The dread of another day at work. The screaming and arguing and noise. The whirling thoughts going round and round your head.
Let it go and for one moment--a minute or a heartbeat or a breath, just be.
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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| Photo from Pinterest |
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
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Frederick Augustus (1763–1827), Duke of York, Reviewing Troops in Flanders, by William Anderson |
Two, The Duke of York and Albany (Frederick Augustus, the 2nd son of George III) was responsible for the British Army reformation. Which was fascinating reading! Also, there's a cool jingle about the duke's failure in Flanders, which is what caused him to reform the army.
Apparently, it's a nursey rhyme.
Oh, the grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.
When they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only halfway up,
They were neither up nor down
The Grand Old Duke of York - Wikipedia
Flanders Campaign 1793-1795 | Napoleonic (british-history.co.uk)
Last week I posted about progress not perfection. Then I found this. You may have seen it, it's been on various social media posts. I think it's worth another share.
Louise and Malcolm's first story, One Day with You, is available for free by signing up for my newsletter. There I'll also post more stories for these two, updates on life, books, and food, and cute photos of my 🐕 corgi. 😍
I'm sure you've heard the saying progress not perfection. Say it with me. That one step forward is progress. I don't need to finish anything before showing it off. Works in Progress are progress and just as valid as a finished product.
One step. Just one. Doesn't have to be a leap or a jump or even one of your normal length steps. A small step forward is--say it with me--forward progress.
Opium.
The history of its cultivation and use is long and complicated. What I focused on in Sins of a Rogue was the British East India Company's absolute control over it and the ills that came of it. OK, a very, very, very small part of what the EIC did in India and the wider implications of opium addiction. As I said, it's a long, complicated history. But it's always about the people involved.
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| This is from the BBC article |
How Britain's opium trade impoverished Indians (BBC)
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple
The Lady's Pirate Excerpt 2 : ✔️Man in distress ✔️Allies to Lovers ✔️Sexy times ensue “You’re still here,” she said into the dark...
