Tullen vs. Smuggling: Helsingborg. Motståndformer bland smugglare utifrån tullrapporter år 1835

Smuggling in Sweden during the nineteenth century is poorly understood at the moment. The topic is notoriously hard to study, yet all research point to it playing a significant role all throughout the early modern period, bypassing highly regulatory trade legislation in order to provide consumer goods to customers. Recent studies have drawn attention both to its surpassive reach and the considerable public support it enjoyed within communities. Despite legislative measures smuggling remained prolific and thus it can be construed as an arena of conflict between state interests, and desires and needs of its subjects. This paper attempts to explore this conflict by studying reports of customs officials detailing their confrontations with smugglers in and around Helsingborg, Scania in the mid-1830’s. Through a close reading of these reports in dialogue with extant theoretical work on economic strategies, class, and state development, the hope is to better understand the motivations and contexts surrounding smuggling. The paper is also an exploratory foray into source material that, thus far, not garnered much interest from historians, with an eye on further avenues of research.