The endeavor has been made to eliminate from this essay the many features of the British colonial and commercial systems which do not have a very direct bearing on the question of smuggling, but it has seemed necessary to show cause why many of these features are without special significance in a discussion of the economic and govern mental questions which arise No attempt has been made to assign any comparative rating to the in?uence which smuggling may have had among the forces which resulted in the Revolution. Due reference has been made in the foot notes to the source material and secondary authorities consulted, while, for convenience, a complete list of such works has been ap pended. The writer is greatly indebted to Assistant Professor David Taggart Clark of Williams College for assistance in the prepar ation of the manuscript for publication.