Smuggler nation : how illicit trade made America

471 Pages·2013·6.048 MB·English

by  Andreas, Peter

SMUGGLER
NATION
Q
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SMUGGLER
NATION
Q
HOW ILLICIT
TRADE MADE
AMERICA
PETER ANDREAS
1
1
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© Peter Andreas 2013
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Andreas, Peter, 1965–
Smuggler nation : how illicit trade made America / Peter Andreas.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–974688–0 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Smuggling—United States—History.
2. United States—Commerce—History. 3. United States—Foreign economic relations.
4. United States—Economic conditions. I. Title.
HJ6690.A74 2013
364.1´3360973—dc23
2012022990
ISBN 978–0–19–974688–0
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For my teachers at Swarthmore and Cornell
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Q
contents
Preface ix
Introduction: A Nation of Smugglers 1
part i: the colonial era
1. Th e Golden Age of Illicit Trade 13
2. Th e Smuggling Road to Revolution 29
3. Th e Smuggling War of Independence 45
part ii: the early republic
4. Contraband and Embargo Busting in the
New Nation 63
5. Traitorous Traders and Patriotic Pirates 82
6. Th e Illicit Industrial Revolution 98
vii
viii contents
part iii: westward expansion, slavery,
and the civil war
7. Bootleggers and Fur Traders in Indian Country 115
8. Illicit Slavers and the Perpetuation of the Slave Trade 130
9. Blood Cotton and Blockade Runners 154
part iv: the gilded age and
the progressive era
10. Tariff Evaders and Enforcers 177
11. Sex, Smugglers, and Purity Crusaders 191
12. Coming to America Th rough the Back Door 208
13. Rumrunners and Prohibitionists 227
part v: into the modern age
14. America’s Century-Long Drug War 253
15. Border Wars and the Underside of
Economic Integration 291
16. America and Illicit Globalization in
the Twenty-First Century 330
Epilogue 353
Notes 357
Index 427
Q
preface

my initial interest in illicit trade—and the early inspiration for this
book—began as a smuggler’s accomplice. Shortly after graduating from
college, I spent four months bumming around Bolivia, Colombia, and
Peru. While crossing into Bolivia from Peru by bus, a nice elderly
woman sitting next to me sheepishly handed me a large plastic bag
fi lled with rolls of toilet paper and then pleaded with me to put it
under my seat. I did what she asked; it seemed harmless enough, even
if a bit peculiar. Th e Bolivian border guards then entered the bus,
checking documents and belongings, and proceeded to confi scate large
amounts of toilet paper. But they overlooked my hidden stash, perhaps
because I did not fi t the profi le of the typical toilet paper smuggler.
Later I learned that the infl ated demand for toilet paper in Bolivia was
partly due to the cocaine industry. Toilet paper was commonly used to
dry and fi lter coca paste, which was then transported to remote jungle
laboratories to be refi ned into powder cocaine—most of which would
eventually end up in the noses of American consumers.
During the same trip, I caught a ride on a cargo boat—which turned
out to be a smuggling boat—traveling down the Amazon River from
Iquitos, Peru, to Leticia, Colombia. Leticia, a bustling town where the
borders between Peru, Colombia, and Brazil meet deep in the jungle,
owed much of its existence to smuggling. Some of my fellow
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