Irish Sea Smuggling

The eighteenth-century clandestine landing of duty-free tea, brandy, gin, tobacco, and salt across the Irish Sea, run from the Isle of Man, Ireland, and the Scottish and Welsh coasts. The Manx ‘running trade’ was so large that Britain bought out the island’s revenue rights under the Isle of Man Purchase Act 1765 (the Revestment) to close the loophole. Fast luggers and wherries outran revenue cutters; the trade shrank after William Pitt’s 1784 Commutation Act slashed the tea duty.