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In January 1682, William Culliford, a loyal and experienced officer
in the King's customs service, began an extraordinary journey under
Treasury orders to investigate the integrity and efficiency of the
customs establishments of southwest England and south Wales as part
of a drive to maximize the Crown's income from customs duties (on
which it relied for much of its revenue). Starting at Bristol,
Culliford eventually completed this daunting task in Cornwall over
two years later in the spring of 1684. His report on each of the
ports he inspected (the primary source for this book) revealed
widespread smuggling and fraud in the context of a customs service
both lacking in efficiency and riddled with corruption. The book
documents the varied frauds and wide-ranging abuses uncovered and
their facilitation by customs officers only too ready to collude
with smugglers, dishonest merchants and seamen and to accept bribes
to ignore tax evasion. It describes, too, Culliford's assessment of
the administrative practices of each port inspected and his
judgment on the levels of probity and efficiency of individual
officers, detailing his recommendations for procedural improvements
and the treatment of the corrupt and incompetent and, incidentally,
of those suspected of political and religious dissent.
Additionally, the book presents a body of statistical data on the
customs revenue actually collected at individual ports in the 1670s
and 1680s and surveys the extent and nature of the maritime trade
of the ports Culliford examined. It thus not only throws light on
the history of the customs service, but provides a rare insight
into the interactions of economic, social and political issues in
the later seventeenth century, and makes a valuable contribution to
the particular histories of the ports and maritime districts
visited by this energetic and tenacious investigator.
In January 1682, William Culliford, a loyal and experienced officer
in the King's customs service, began an extraordinary journey under
Treasury orders to investigate the integrity and efficiency of the
customs establishments of southwest England and south Wales as part
of a drive to maximize the Crown's income from customs duties (on
which it relied for much of its revenue). Starting at Bristol,
Culliford eventually completed this daunting task in Cornwall over
two years later in the spring of 1684. His report on each of the
ports he inspected (the primary source for this book) revealed
widespread smuggling and fraud in the context of a customs service
both lacking in efficiency and riddled with corruption. The book
documents the varied frauds and wide-ranging abuses uncovered and
their facilitation by customs officers only too ready to collude
with smugglers, dishonest merchants and seamen and to accept bribes
to ignore tax evasion. It describes, too, Culliford's assessment of
the administrative practices of each port inspected and his
judgment on the levels of probity and efficiency of individual
officers, detailing his recommendations for procedural improvements
and the treatment of the corrupt and incompetent and, incidentally,
of those suspected of political and religious dissent.
Additionally, the book presents a body of statistical data on the
customs revenue actually collected at individual ports in the 1670s
and 1680s and surveys the extent and nature of the maritime trade
of the ports Culliford examined. It thus not only throws light on
the history of the customs service, but provides a rare insight
into the interactions of economic, social and political issues in
the later seventeenth century, and makes a valuable contribution to
the particular histories of the ports and maritime districts
visited by this energetic and tenacious investigator.
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