CONTRABAND TRADE. CHAP. XXII. 



were permitted. One English ship was allowed 

 annually to dispose of a cargo, and under cover 

 of her tenders are said to have been at hand 

 to supply other goods as fast as the permitted 

 or registered cargo was sold. This kind of 

 commerce continued from the beginning of the 

 century to about the year 1740, when the popular 

 cry in England involved the country in a war 

 under pretence of Spanish outrages committed on 

 English contraband traders. It was a commerce 

 which offered great inducements to the Spanish 

 settlers to defraud the colonial revenue, and as 

 the temptation was strong, so it was increased 

 by the corrupt conduct of the officers of the 

 revenue and the facilities thereby afforded to the 

 smugglers. 



This state of affairs, on what was then known 

 by the name of the Spanish main, continued for 

 near forty years, and though the war of 1740 

 suspended first, and soon gave a different di- 

 rection to the trade, it was continued under another, 

 form to the end of the century. Don Juan de 

 Ulloa, in his despatches to the court of Spain, 

 enters into the details of this trade, which shows 

 it to be very extensive, and that large quantities 

 of silver and gold were surreptitiously exchanged 

 for the goods of England, Holland, China, and 

 India 1 . This commerce was active on both shores 



1 See Noticias Secretas de America, cap. 9. 



