Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Smuggling" in English language version.
Since trafficking in smuggled goods was commonplace and apparently beyond remedial action for over a century before 1700, how are we to explain the persistence of legitimate monopoly paralleling this illegal activity? [...] monopoly (or oligopoly) and smuggling - legal and illegal commerce, the formal and parallel economies - were functionally linked in Spain's transatlantic trading system.
Because of [...] difficulty in collecting excise taxes, the British in the colonies were forced to fall back on high customs duties, which the colonists easily avoided by smuggling. [...] The East India Company had received its monopoly on the tea trade from the Crown, which then proceeded to tax tea so heavily that smuggling became profitable, and the value of the franchise sold by the Crown eroded.
