SMUGGLING
Yep, back a few hundred years ago, I can imagine the real smuggler John Carter rolling kegs up this beach in the moonlight in long boots and a stripy jersey. Hiding them in a cave, then hawking the brandy round the local village avoiding the revenue men in any way possible. The real smuggling trade back in the day grew to astonishing proportions, even by modern standards. It was not unheard of for one mission to bring in 1500 cases of brandy, plus it was estimated four fifths of tea drunk in England had not paid duty. Whole communities connived in the trade and benefited from it. This extraordinary situation came about because consecutive governments were raising taxes to extortionate levels in order to pay for costly wars in Europe. As the eighteenth century progressed, the tax on tea had risen to over 70% of its initial cost. Smugglers were opportunists and eventually almost every community on the coast were involved in one way or another! Contraband was brought across the channel and operations to bring goods onto the beaches were run with military precision to avoid the authorities. The cargo then had to be stored and transported around the country as the sheer quantities involved increased. By the early 1800’s, the Coast Guard was established to help police the coast, but eventually it was economics that signalled the end of the smuggling era as finally in the 1840’s, Britain adopted a free trade policy that slashed import duty to realistic levels and effectively wiped out most illicit trading.