Adam Smith: accountant?

In my previous post, I mentioned that we would take a closer look at a small sample of 34 letters that Adam Smith signed in his official capacity as Commissioner of Scotland’s Board of Customs. The first piece of official correspondence in my sample is Letter #109, which is dated 16 September 1784 and is signed by three members of the Board of Customs: Basil Cochrane, Adam Smith, and James Edgar. In this letter, the Board instructs the Collector to account for a sum of money from a recent seizure and sale of contraband wine. More specifically, the letter refers to “Ten Guineas of Freight paid by the Collector for bringing twenty eight Hogsheads of Wine from Lossiemouth [see map pictured below], and securing it in the King’s warehouse ….” (Letter #109; punctuation in the original) The “Collector” in this letter most likely refers to a local customs officer called the Collector of Customs, who was responsible for collecting duties, managing local officers, seizing smuggled or illegal…