why were the authorities unable to control and get rid of poaching or smuggling in the 18th century?
The main reason why the authorities couldnt get rid of smuggling or poaching was because everyone did it. By this i mean poor people and rich people( which includes ordinary people and majistrates). This was because there was a lot of profit to be made by smuggling. However the poor did this for a reason, this reason was because of need. The poor desperatly needed money whereas the rich they only smuggled for greed. Both rich and the poor smuggled becuase for the rich it was easy money to be made and for the poor it was cheap and they needed to smuggle. The reason why the poor needed money desperatly was because everything such as food (bread) was too expensive for them to buy therefore they smuggled to keep themselves and their families alive. Smugglers mainly smuggled tea and wine this was becuase it was worth a lot of money.
Another reason why i think the authorities couldnt stop smuggling was because if anyone had been caught doing it they wouldnt have been found guilty. This was certainly because the juries(ordinary people) themselves did it and everyone were scared of smugglers as they did have large gangs, as many as 40 to 50 people in some even had 200 people in, so no one dared to say anything.
Another reason why the authorities couldnt stop smuggling was because there was several
thousand of miles of coastline around Britain which was unguarded. This was because there were not enough custom officers, so some of the remaining army had to guard it. However this still did not work becuase the smugglers were not scared of the army and this was becuase the smugglers themselves used to be in the army and they were well armed and some may even knew each other. Also some people along the coastline helped smugglers for money.
Another reason why the authorities failed to stop smuggling was becuase smugglers came to london round about 2am to 3am in the...