Adam Smith, Commissioner (Part 8)

Nota bene: For reference, here are my previous installments — parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 — in my multi-part series on Adam Smith’s day-to-day duties as a commissioner of the Board of Customs of Scotland. In one of my previous posts (see here), I repeated the oft-quoted words of Sir Walter Scott about smugglers — “Smuggling was almost universal in Scotland, for people unaccustomed to imposts and regarding them as an unjust aggression upon their ancient liberties, made no scruple to elude them whenever it was possible to do so” — and I asked, “What scruples, if any, did Smith have in prosecuting them?” As it happens, if Order #123 is any indication, Smith and his fellow commissioners on the Board of Customs may have had quite a few such scruples. Let me explain: To begin, Order #123 is dated 9 November 1784 and is signed by James Edgar (top signature), Adam Smith (middle), and Basil Cochrane (bottom). In addition, this order refers to the same local customs official as the previous…