Smuggling: Seven Centuries of Contraband

Description

Smuggling conjures up images of romance and rebellion. Moving beyond this popular conception, Smuggling: Seven Centuries of Contraband presents the bigger picture of this clandestine trade. It focuses on the involvement of powerful political, economic, scientific and cultural interests in smuggling, and how these have affected the history and politics of the world. This is in large part a story of globalization, but one told, for the first time, through smuggling.

Simon Harvey is Associate Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Trondheim, Norway.

"The author presents his work not only as history, but also as a form of geography, assembling an impressively wide range of material dealing with contraband. . . . It is difficult to summarize such an extensive and richly-textured study. . . . It presents a thought-provoking interpretation of smuggling, especially in its insistence on the significance of its romantic element. . . . It contains material that will be of much interest to students of maritime history not least for its probing of the subtle nuances of smuggling practices and culture."-- "International Journal of Maritime History" "Written in an accessible and lively fashion, Smuggling is an energetic, entertaining, and stimulating read. It is highly recommended to all those interested in the connections between smuggling and exploration, contraband and empire and the ways smuggler networks contribute to the global foreign policy of nation states."-- "History Today" "One of the many joys of this splendidly discursive yet academically rigorous book is to find that Kipling got it right in A Smugglers Song."-- "Country Life" "Harvey presents a vast worldwide view of illicit cross-border trade in goods, services, people, and even ideas from about the sixteenth century to the present, showing how smuggling is related to political interests, economic development, scientific advancement, and wars. Basing his book on considerable research, Harvey focuses alternately on different regions such as the Caribbean, where European countries undercut each other; then on individuals; next, competing monopolistic organizations such as the British and Dutch East Indies companies; followed by products such as salt, tobacco, silver, and drugs, as well as attempts to control smuggling. . . . This is a rich study. . . . Recommended." -- "Choice"