‘…Of Which a Contraband Trade Makes the Basis of their Profit’: Tea Smuggling in the North Sea c. 1750–1780

Abstract

Building on research into the trade of the southeast Scotland port of Eyemouth, this chapter proposes that there was a distinctive North Sea smuggling world. The East India companies of both Sweden and Denmark relied wholly on smuggling into Britain for their commercial success. In Sweden, there was a cadre of merchants of Scottish origin, who bought tea from the Swedish East India Company and sold it directly to merchant-smugglers at ‘home’ in Scotland. The Danes sold their tea, from Copenhagen itself, through Bergen, the Faroe Islands, the ports on the Elbe and the group of timber-exporting harbours of southern Norway, with their traditions of law breaking, new demands for imported luxuries and connections with the Danish Asiatic Company.