English Smugglers, the Channel, and the Napoleonic Wars, 1800–1814

Abstract

During the NapoleonicWars the Channel between England and France
\nremained a major site for smuggling. Both the British and French
\ngovernments faced this problem. From the French perspective,
\nbanned English textiles flooded continental markets; from the British perspective,
\nsmugglers evaded duties on continental goods landed on local shores and illegally
\nshipped people and goods out of Britain to France and the Netherlands. While
\nthe smuggling of English textiles into Napoleonic-controlled Europe has become
\npart of the history of the Continental Blockade, very little has been written on
\nthe contraband flows into and out of Britain and on the English smugglers who
\nwere the principal agents in a trans-Channel smuggling community.1 This article
\naims to address this neglect, throwing new light on the nature of the Channel
\nand its coastal communities and offering further insights into the contested historical
\nquestions of identity, patriotism, and Anglo-French relations during the
\nNapoleonic Wars. At the same time that the British state and its people were at
\nwar with Napoleonic France and its satellite states, English subjects along the
\nChannel shore continued to trade illegally with the enemy, with the Channel
\nproving a permeable border rather than an impenetrable defensive barrier.
\nIn general, English smuggling during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
\nremains an underdeveloped field of historical inquiry.