Adam Smith, Commissioner (Part 9)

Nota bene: Here are the previous installments — parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 — in my multi-part series on Adam Smith’s day-to-day duties as a commissioner of the Board of Customs of Scotland. The next record in my sample of signed Adam Smith documents is Order #125, the longest and most complex Board of Customs order in my sample thus far. This order is dated 15 November 1784 and is signed by David Reid (top signature), Adam Smith (middle), and James Edgar (bottom). This order concerns a contested seizure of imported wine and reads in full as follows: “We received your Letter of the 21st of last Month, with Proof that the sundry Parcels of Wine mentioned in our Order of the 21st of September last, are the same Wines which were imported in the Janet of Portsoy [*], and for which Duties were paid at your Port, with the Answers of the Officers who granted Certificates for the removal thereof, and of those who neglected to give proper Information to you; And having considered the same…