Abstract
This special issue considers the implications of smuggling for the early modern Dutch economy. Despite a developed literature on trade and institutional economics the scale and importance of contraband trade and mercantile tax evasion are rarely taken into account. This introduction to the special issue discusses which methodological innovations can be employed to reconstruct illegal activities and what the results are of combining international bodies of sources to this end. The preliminary findings have important repercussions for historical studies of trade and for the appreciation of the role of formal institutions in early modern economic development.
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