Fighting Crime in Maritime London

Smuggling (the crime of importing or exporting goods without paying the required Customs duties) and corruption had been a problem since the Middle Ages. The word ‘smuggle’ originated primarily from the Scandinavian languages – the Danish smugle which literally means ‘smuggle’ and the Swedish smuga means ‘a lurking hole’ (потаенное место, убежище) – the Anglo-Saxon smugan, ‘to creep’, is probably cognate (родственный, близкий) with the Icelandic prefix smug which stems from smjuga, and means ‘to creep’ or ‘to creep through a hole’.

Smuggling usually took place through the ports: vessels and individuals arriving at ports often attempted to conceal dutiable goods, sometimes by disguising (маскируя) them as other items.

To detect concealed goods, teams of officers searched vessels and people using the port. Ships bound for London could be searched. The people and their luggage had to be checked at Customs posts at the place of arrival.

When Customs duties were very high, some smugglers avoided the ports altogether, and tried to land their goods in places out of sight of the authorities. These smugglers brought in light, high-value goods such as tea, tobacco and silks.

Smuggling reached its peak during the 18^th century, when duties were very high, and when many imports were banned altogether during the frequent wars with France.

The smugglers have often been romanticized in literature but in reality, it was a brutal business on both sides. Many smugglers were hanged, and most were prepared to use force against the revenue men – as the Customs officials were known – to avoid capture (избежать ареста). While the authorities used informants to break the gangs, smugglers used the threat of violence – and even murder (убийство) – to ensure silence from the local community.

Contraband goods were often destroyed in public, in order to demonstrate that smuggling would not be tolerated.

The presence of ruthless villains (жестокие негодяи) in the gangs led, in turn, to violent clashes (стычки, столкновения) between smugglers and revenue men and turned the cliffs and coasts of England into a blood-soaked battleground comparable with the Wild West of pre-industrial America.

The smuggling traders came very often in gangs of sixty to one hundred men to the shore in disguise armed with swords, pistols, blunderbusses (мушкетоны), carbines (карабины), and not only carry off the goods they land in defiance of (вопреки) officers, but beat, knock down and abuse whoever they meet in their way.

Women were useful to the smugglers as signallers and carriers of messages from members of the gang to each other, but they actually brought goods in from the shore for them.

The skirt was a particularly useful fashion, for the women wound silk (шелк) and lace (шнурок, тесьма) round their bodies and reached home as a rule quite peacefully with their contraband.

There have been cases, however, when women have, on inspection, been found to have had their petticoats (нижние юбки) puffed out by bladders (надувая их [юбки] пузырями) filled with spirits (спиртные напитки).

Although there were more potential smugglers around, there were also more soldiers, sailors and preventive men to combat them. A whole series of measures were taken to increase the numbers of those employed in the prevention of smuggling and to improve co-operation between them.

Inspecting officers, riding officers were appointed to carry out combined operations. Naval vessels and troops of soldiers were also drafted in to aid the struggle.

Exercise 7. Complete these phrases from the text using prepositions, if necessary.

to originate _____ the language;

to arrive _____ ports;

to be banned ______ the frequent wars;

to be destroyed _____ public;

to use force _____ the revenue men;

to be a brutal business _____ both sides;

to land goods ____ places ____ ____ sight of the authorities;

to be checked _____ Customs posts;

to come ____ gangs _____ sixty;

to improve co-operation _____ them;

to knock _____ people on the way;

to land _____ defiance _____ officers;

to be useful _____ the smugglers;

to be filled ____ spirits;

to reach _____ home _____ the contraband.

Exercise 8. Make up your own sentences with:

attempts to conceal; to detect concealed good; to search ships; armed with swords; high-value goods; contraband goods; women-signallers; series of measures; members of the gangs; preventive men; clashes between smugglers; blood-soaked battlegrounds.

Exercise 9. Answer the following questions:

1. Why did the smugglers disguise goods as other items?

2. When did the smugglers avoid the ports?

3. When did smuggling reach its peak?

4. How were the smugglers punished?

5. Why did women become smugglers?

6. Who caught them?

7. How were the Customs officials called at that time?

Exercise 10. Translate Text 2 into Russian.

Text 2

Date: 2015-09-18; view: 400; Нарушение авторских прав