Customs duty is a charge levied on most goods which are imported or exported and customs officials are responsible for the examination of such goods arriving at ports of entry and the collection of these duties. By contrast, excise payments are made on goods produced within Britain and until 1909 were collected separately by Excise officers working for the Board of Excise.

A customs service of sorts has been in existence ever since goods first began to move in and out of England, and customary or customs dues were demanded by the king on all imports and exports. However, it was not until the reign of Edward I that the first permanent, organised customs system was established with an Act of Parliament of 1275, which appointed two Collectors of Customs, responsible for the receipt of customs dues, in each port designated by the king. In addition to these officials a Controller was also appointed, who kept a set of duplicate accounts and exercised financial control. Collectors and the Controller also held a joint seal, called a cocket, which was stamped on to goods to certify that the correct duty had been paid.

It was the responsibility of exporters to present themselves at the Customs House to make the required payment on their goods and at each House a large set of scales, termed the ‘King’s Beam’ was set up to weigh wool brought in and thus calculate the duty owed, a reasonable arrangement during the 13th and 14th centuries as approximately 98% of all custom revenues came from the export of this product.

There were also two additional levies on imported goods during this early period: poundage, a tax of one shilling in the pound on imported or exported goods other than wine, introduced in 1302 under Edward I, and tonnage, money payable on each cask or tun of wine, introduced in 1347 during the reign of Edward III. In a bizarre sideline, during the Wars of the Roses and their aftermath, a shortage of good quality yew meant that duty was also levied in the form of long-bow staves from Spain or Italy, the import duty rising from four staves for every ton of cargo during the reign of Edward VI to ten staves for each tun or cask of wine after Richard III came to power.

Between 1297 and 1303, several new Customs officials were appointed: Customers, responsible for receiving money from the Collectors and delivering it to the Exchequer; Searchers, responsible for examining all goods intended for import or export to ascertain that the correct duty had been paid; and Surveyors, who supervised the Searchers in each of a small group of ports.

Early in the 16th century, this system was improved by the publication of a Book of Rates or Rate Book, giving official valuations for imported goods, Collectors having previously been forced to rely on the importer for an assessment of the value of their merchandise.

Customs reform
In a further improvement, a new Customs Act was passed in 1588 which introduced shipping controls regulating both the hours during which cargoes could be moved on and off a ship and the place where this could be done, which was termed a Legal Quay. The Act also required that the nature of all cargoes entering or leaving a port be reported by either the master of the vessel involved or the exporter before loading. Corruption was still rife within the system however, mainly because, from the 14th century, government had been content to farm out customs dues, their collection being turned over to private individuals in return for an annual payment or ‘rent’.

With the establishment of a permanent Board of Customs in 1671, however, this iniquitous practice was ended. A Receiver General was appointed to receive money from all the Collectors, along with a Comptroller General to check accounts and three Surveyors General to oversee the activity of the Searchers. Needless to say, this proved unpopular with the local magistrates for whom the post of Customer had become a sinecure and they showed a certain lack of cooperation with Customs officials engaged in combating the now widespread practice of illegal import and export.

Dealing with smugglers
Once established, the Board of Customs then turned its attention to the smuggling problem. Until the end of the 17th century, customs enforcement had been delegated to Preventive officers stationed in designated ports, who monitored vessels as they came and went. These officials were called Waiters, later divided into Tide Waiters, tasked with boarding ships prior to landing and ensuring no imported goods were landed prematurely, and Land Waiters, who had taken over the role of searcher and examined the imported goods after they left the vessel.

In addition to these officials, each Customs House had a small boat for what was termed ‘preventive duties’. Although this system was adequate for checking the legal movement of goods, smugglers were not running their cargoes into port and both the Board of Customs and the Board of Excise, which was established in 1683, were obliged to employ land-based Riding Officers (the Landguard: established 1690), together with sea-going Revenue cruisers, which patrolled the coastline between ports on the look out for potential law breakers.

Unfortunately, government parsimony meant that far too few Riding Officers were recruited, with only eight men initially being employed in 1690 to patrol the whole of the Kent coastline, and these hapless individuals soon found themselves powerless to prevent the activities of the smugglers, who were far more numerous than the Customs officials.

Deficiencies of this sort were rectified eventually, however, with Landguard numbers in Kent finally reaching 300, and each officer being responsible for patrolling a 10-mile section of the coastline. Despite these improvements, Preventive men were still hopelessly outnumbered and the pay was so poor, with officials still expected to prosecute smugglers out of their own pocket, that few criminals were ever apprehended, and those who were tended to be treated leniently by local magistrates up to their necks in the trade themselves.

The Waterguard
Riding Officers were also expected to liaise with both the Waterguard, established in 1809, who were initially based in Watch Houses around the coast and used small boats to mount nightly inshore patrols and the larger Revenue cutters who conducted their patrols farther off shore. The Waterguard was placed under Admiralty control in 1816 until it was amalgamated with the Riding Officers and Revenue cutters to become the Coast Guard in 1822, the new force being placed under the control HM Customs.

Coastguard duties began to move away from preventive work during the 1850s, because free-trade arrangements had made smuggling unprofitable and led to its almost total demise in Britain, although there was sufficient illegal activity to cause the government to reform the Waterguard as part of HM Customs in 1891, and it was later absorbed by the new department of HM Customs and Excise in 1909. As technology grew in the new century so did the role of the Waterguard, although its members are now referred to simply as Customs Officers, and these officials are responsible for checking the movement of goods and people at all points of entry into the UK, including airports.

Perspectives
The Customs service is as old as smuggling, although the men who worked for the early government organisations might be forgiven for seeing themselves as somewhat neglected by their masters. Many of the early Riding officers certainly seem to have bowed to the pressure of circumstances and turned a blind eye to the smugglers’ activities in their area as a matter of simple survival and it appears to be not unheard of for the local customs man to be part of a smuggling gang.

This sort of corruption began to be less widespread during the 19th century, when the Coastguard became a training ground for potential naval officers and ratings. Improvements in pay, conditions and training also played a large part in shaping the service as it is today, although as a profession it is still not without its inherent dangers. Despite having access to the latest equipment and technology, Customs officers continue to risk their lives on a regular basis in taking the fight to traffickers in drugs, illegal firearms and particularly refugees.