El contrabando y la crisis del Antiguo Régimen en Navarra (1778-1808)

Abstract

The strategic location of Navarre between France and Spain and above all its privileged political status, which permitted its own systems of customs control free of Spanish interference, explain the importance of the phenomenon of smuggling in Navarre. But during the final decades of the 18th century, the period known as the crisis of the Old Regime, enlightened Spanish governments began a policy directed towards putting an end to this traditional system. Smuggling was frequently on the epicenter of this debate.

The Navarrese economy during the period of the Old Regime was directly related to activities involving illegal commerce. Smuggling in the 18th century basically consisted in the contraband of tobacco and other products from the tropics under state monopoly...