Walking Through History - Cornish Smuggling

Hello teachers!  I hope that you are doing well with this vacation time and getting refreshed.  Tony is now heading to Cornwall and the Cornish coast to learn about smuggling.  The run time for this episode is 47:03. This episode is called Smuggler’s Cornwall.

The Cornish coast is rugged with secretive harbors, beaches, and secluded coves.  These were places that were ideal for smuggling.  Smuggling involved everyone in the community until it was ended.  In the 18Th Century, smuggling was a big business in Cornwall.  Half of the brandy drunk in Britain was smuggled in from Cornwall.  Smuggling threatened the national economy. Tony begins his smuggler’s route in Portwrinkle along the coast past Seaton and finally ends the day in Looe.  He begins Day two in Talland to Polperror.  Day Three is in Polruan and a bay.  From Fowey, he catches a boat and learns about the Napoleonic wars and how there was a crackdown on smuggling.  Ends his walk in Falmouth.

Portwrinkle is a tiny fishing building and it is where Tony begins.  A massive crime wave hit this village.  The residents of Portwrinkle depended on pilchards, a fish otherwise known as big sardines.  However, the fishermen faced ruin when massive taxes threatened them with ruin.  Fishermen needed salt to preserve the fish to be sent to the Mediterranean, and salt was heavily taxed.  In France, salt was cheap and the stage was set for smuggling.  Tony talks with a local whose uncle was involved with smuggling.  The taxes were raised because of the American Revolution and Great Britain was on the edge of bankruptcy. 

Eventually Tony makes his way to Looe and he is getting overheated.  He points out rocks that are known as “brandies” because that was where the smugglers hid their goods.  Tony meets up with Sam Willis and now I am going to have to find another Sam Willis documentary.  Sam talks about the financial crunch that Great Britain was facing.  The Government would have hired revenue men to make sure the taxes were paid for contraband goods.  However, because of the landscape and coves, it became impossible for the revenue men to get those goods taxed.  Eventually, Tony continues on his way and talks about how people turned to smuggling to survive and make serious money.

Tony and the rain arrive in Looe and he meets with a former customs officer.  They talk about how a smuggling run would work.  There were massive amounts of goods that were transported and sneaked into Britain.  Smuggling and the pictures it evoked have been incorporated into our modern language.  “Bootlegger,” “coast is clear” and “above board,” all had their roots in smuggling.  He ends the day in Talland.  Tony will learn about who was involved in smuggling.

On day two, he makes his way to Polperro the home of one of the biggest smuggling rings in Britain.  The government had been replaced as a result of the loss of the American Revolution.  William Pitt, at twenty-four years old, was named Prime Minister.  He cut the tax on tea and tea smuggling dried up, tea sales tripled and government revenues went up.  However, events in Europe would change his plans for financial reforms.  It was in Polperro where smuggling was changed into big business.  Who was behind this change?  It took decades but it was finally revealed that a man named Zephaniah Job was behind the change.  He was the smuggler’s banker but then he eventually took over.  Tony meets with a local who now looks after the books.  Money flowed through Polperro and was invested in the smuggling operations.  What else does Tony learn about the smuggling and Cornwall?  Where else does this walk take Tony?  How would smuggling come to an end?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more about Smuggling in Cornwall.

This was a delightful episode about smuggling and the Cornish coast.  There has been plenty of fiction written about smuggling, however, Tony talks about how everyone participated in smuggling.  It was crazy to think that it fueled a lot of the economy.  Tony really enjoyed learning about smuggling.  I would still want to put this series on my list of documentaries to show to a classroom.