Nota bene: This is part 6 of my multi-part series on Adam Smith’s day-to-day duties as a member of the Board of Customs of Scotland. For reference, here are parts 1 (intro), 2 (Letter #109), 3 (Letter #112), 4 (Letter #118), and 5 (Letter #119).
The sixth piece of correspondence in my sample of Smithian letters is Letter #120. This letter is dated __ November 1784 (the day is cut off), and like the previous two letters (#118 and #119), it is signed by Adam Smith (top signature), Basil Cochrane (middle), and David Reid (bottom). In this letter, the three commissioners of the Board of Customs formally approve a payroll claim submitted by a local customs official at one of Scotland’s ports:
“Having receiv’d your Letter of the 26th of last Month, inclosing a Memorial from Mr. Geo. Henderson Tidesurveyor at your Port, stating that in consequence of the liberty given him by our Order of the 12th of February 1783, he had [lounged] with the King’s boat & crew, during the different periods therein mention’d, making in all twenty two days, when he had advice of some Smuggl’s being expected on the Coast, and praying an Allowance to the Boatmen during that period. — We agree to your Paying the Boatmen at the rate of ninepence p. diem each for the respective Periods mention’d making in all twenty two days, and to place the amount to Incidents, annexing this order and proper discharges as vouchers.”
In summary, a tide-surveyor was a water-guard officer responsible for boarding incoming vessels, inspecting cargoes, and patrolling coastal waters to intercept smugglers. (See generally Elizabeth E. Hoon, The Organization of the English Customs System, 1696-1786 (1968), available here.) The local tide-surveyor mentioned in this letter, Mr. George Henderson, acting under prior legal authority granted to him by an order of the Board of Customs dated 12 February 1783, had deployed a vessel and hired several boatmen (“the King’s boat & crew”) to conduct coastal surveillance after receiving some intelligence that smugglers were planning to land contraband on the coast.
(By way of additional background, the term “King’s boat” in this letter refers to an official, government-owned service vessel assigned to a regional port for local customs enforcement and other “water-guard” activities, including anti-smuggling operations. See generally the index entry for “water-guard” in Hoon 1968. See also chapters 6, 7, and 12 of E. Keble Chatterton, King’s Cutters and Smugglers, 1700-1855 (1912), available here. In this particular anti-smuggling operation, Henderson and his crew spent a cumulative total of 22 days on active patrol.)
After completing this special anti-smuggling operation, Henderson had formally requested an extra daily allowance for his boat crew, and upon his request, the Board of Customs agrees to authorize the payment of ninepence (9d) per day to each of Henderson’s boatmen for each of the 22 days on patrol, i.e. 0.75 shillings per day for a total of 16 shillings and 6 pence (16s 6d) or £1.98 (over £155 in today money; see here) for each boatman. In addition, the board orders the total amount paid out to be charged to the Incidents account of Henderson’s local customs/port office. (“Incidents” was the budget category designated for contingent, non-salary operational expenses. See, e.g., Hoon 1968, p. 145.) To clear this expenditure, the local port officer must attach the board’s order (Letter #120), along with the boatmen’s signed receipts (“discharges as vouchers“).
Also, like the previous letter in my sample (Letter #119, which authorized the payment of £2 for a Bath stove), this letter (#120) demonstrates the strict and rigid administrative centralization of 18th-century revenue collection. An extra daily allowance of ninepence per man could not simply be disbursed on the spot; it required writing up a formal petition (“Memorial”), sending it to the Board of Customs in Edinburgh for review, and the approval/signature of three commissioners. But what makes this letter even more fascinating is that it presents another facet of Adam Smith’s work, for it not only shows us a scrupulous bureaucrat meticulously auditing public expenditures; it also reveals an establishment figure who is deeply involved in the micro-level logistics of Britain’s mercantilist trade policy, a Smith who is managing frontline anti-smuggling operations!
But how pervasive was smuggling in Scotland? In the oft-quoted words of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) in his 1818 novel The Heart of Midlothian, “Smuggling was almost universal in Scotland, for people unaccustomed to imposts and regarding them as an unjust aggression upon their ancient liberties, made no scruple to elude them whenever it was possible to do so.” For his part, what scruples, if any, did Smith have in prosecuting them?
