Adam Smith, Commissioner (part 11)

Nota bene: Here are the previous ten installments — parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 — in my multi-part series on Adam Smith’s day-to-day duties as a commissioner of the Board of Customs of Scotland. Endnotes are below the fold. Order #127 is dated __ Nov. 1784 (the day is cut off) and is signed by the same three commissioners (and in the same sequence) who signed the previous two orders (#126 and #125): David Reid (top signature), Adam Smith (middle), and James Edgar (bottom). This third Reid-Smith-Edgar order illustrates a certain level of inter-agency cooperation between excise and customs officials and reads as follows: “Having received your Letter of the 21st of last Month, enclosing Return of Seizure No. 290 by Mr. Alexander Fullarton Supervisor of Excise for Eleven dozen of Bottled Wine—and also Return No. 291 by Mess.rs Robert Anderson Land Surveyor and Archibald Chisholm Landwaiter, for two pipes of Portugal and Wine; — We have ordered the said two Returns to be…