At this time there was a deficiency of three millions a year in the
revenue of the country. This was principally owing to a failure in the
estimated produce of taxes imposed by Lord North during the war with
America. There were, however, other causes at work to produce this
deficiency, and not the least among them was the universal practice of
smuggling. This practice was, indeed, at the close of the American war,
carried on to an almost incredible extent; government being too much
employed to keep a strict watch over the trade of the country. It is
calculated that forty thousand persons were thus engaged; and Pitt
deemed it expedient to bring in a bill for the prevention of smuggling
in general, and then to propose regulations applicable to those articles
which formed its principle support. By the bill for the prevention of
smuggling, the right of seizing certain vessels with their cargoes,
under particular circumstances, was greatly extended; the building of
such vessels was prohibited; the owners of armed vessels were obliged to
procure licences; the rules respecting clearance were enlarged; and the
act of resisting his majesty's ships and officers was made a capital
felony. In order to aid this bill, Pitt brought forward two others: one
directed against contraband trade in tea, and the other against that in
spirits. That with reference to tea was of great importance, for it was
at this time considered a staple commodity of the smuggler.
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