This chapter examines the relationship between the silk industry in eighteenth-century Britain and the fiscal-military state, specifically with Customs and Excise.

Abstract As part of protectionist policy in eighteenth-century Britain, imported silks
were banned from being sold. Although it is known that bans on imported textiles
were widely broken, there have been few systematic studies of the contraband trade
in silks. Using customs’ records, this article shows how smuggling supplied the
demand for i…[Read more]