The people who carried out these illegal transactions are known as contrabandists, informal actors, and smugglers. Several historians acknowledge the pitfalls in studying contraband trade, namely that written records do not exist or survive, because commercial transactions were illegal. Europe’s interest in Caribbean trade became more evident following the eradication campaigns against piracy in the 1730s 3. Europe took an increasing interest in establishing official ports with naval officers, forts, and warehouses in the colonies to regulate and tax this expanding trade. Much of this went undocumented, since the early organizers of this trade were pirates 2. Scholars have shown that in times of peace Caribbean colonies traded and in times of war, trade exchanges slowed, since privateers and neutral carriers disrupted pre-war trade patterns 1. Earlier historians presented a rigid framework that must be reanalysed in order to show the reality of trading life within the region.
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