Eighteenth-century London docks ran a networked stolen-goods economy

Evidence

In this situation of permanent pilfering, three phenomena, says Colquhoun, should be taken into consideration: first, the complicity and often the active participation of the clerks, overseers, foremen and workers: ‘Whenever a large number of workers are gathered together in one place, there are bound to be a lot of bad characters among them’; second, the existence of a whole organization of illicit commerce, which began in the workshops or docks, then passed on to the receivers – wholesale receivers, specializing in certain kinds of commodity, and retail receivers whose stalls offered a ‘wretched display of old iron, rags and worn clothes, whereas at the back of the shop were hidden naval munitions of great value, copper bolts and nails, pieces of cast iron and precious metals, produce from the West Indies, furniture and all kinds of goods bought from the labourers’ – then on to dealers and pedlars who distributed the stolen goods far into the countryside (Colquhoun, 1797; in chapters VII, VIII and XV, he gives a very detailed account of this process); third, counterfeiting (it seems that there were between forty and fifty mints producing counterfeit money throughout England, in permanent operation). — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 142

Categorization

• CANDY: The vivid image of shops hiding naval munitions and precious metals behind a ‘wretched display of old iron, rags and worn clothes’ is a lively, low-context morsel about organized pilfering.
• SHARE: The detail about forty to fifty permanent counterfeit-money mints operating across England is a precise nerdy fact worth sending to someone interested in early industrial crime or the history of money.
• XREF: connects to: Eighteenth-century popular culture operated outside the law yet inside networks of social force; Cities bred specialized thieves and con men, not just honest commerce; Bourgeois economic growth depended on tolerated popular illegalities — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 140

Broader Connections

• Eighteenth-century popular culture operated outside the law yet inside networks of social force #corroborates (0.80)
• Cities bred specialized thieves and con men, not just honest commerce #corroborates (0.75)
• Bourgeois economic growth depended on tolerated popular illegalities #complicates (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 140