A Toast to the Smugglers!

From the Vault. By PFS member David Dürr. Translated from David Dürr, “Ein Hoch auf die Schmuggler!,” eigentümlich frei (23 Oct. 2025). Eigentümlich frei (“peculiarly free”) is a German magazine edited by André F. Lichtschlag. Other Dürr articles at eigentümlich frei.

Border Patrol: Nothing but highway robbery • Bildquelle: Vic Hinterlang / Shutterstock.com

A Toast to the Smugglers!
The 2025 Continental Blockade and Its Heroes

David Dürr  |  August 19, 2025

Today, there is good news from our statist valley of tears. A new breed of courageous heroes is emerging, taking on considerable risks to shield us from state overreach: the smugglers.

Long ago, at the dawn of the nineteenth century, smugglers played an equally heroic role. This was most prominent during the Continental Blockade, which Napoleon imposed against England to prevent his cross-Channel adversary from doing business in continental Europe. This embargo enticed clever adventurers to discover loopholes and secret routes to smuggle British goods into Europe. Demand was soaring, supply was choked by the blockade, and prices rose accordingly. As the narrative goes, some well-organized smugglers amassed such fortunes that their descendants continue to live off them to this day. Yet, the British also profited by successfully selling their merchandise, as did European consumers whose demands were finally met. A genuine win-win-win outcome, brought about by these smuggling heroes.

A similar brand of heroism manifested a few decades later during the American Civil War. The militarily superior Union states deployed warships in an all-out effort to intercept European shipments bound for the Confederacy. Here too, ingenious blockade-runners immediately stepped into the breach. Risking life and limb, they secured a true win-win-win outcome for suppliers, recipients, and themselves alike. Heroes, plain and simple!

Later, as states shifted from waging war primarily against external enemies to campaigns against their own populations—orchestrated through ever-more sophisticated systems of institutionalized tax plunder—traditional smugglers faded into the background. In their stead, a new class of heroes emerged: the tax-haven facilitators. Utilizing offshore structures, numbered bank accounts, and fiduciary trusts, they accepted substantial personal risks to help citizens steer their hard-earned capital away from state collectors. Once again, this yielded a win-win-win outcome: for the individuals preserving their wealth, for the liberated market economy, and for the facilitators earning their well-deserved fees.

And now, as noted, we are witnessing a delightful revival of the smuggling hero. Thanks to the new Napoleon residing in Washington, a new Continental Blockade has risen—this time, an American one. Its purpose is to ensure that the designated adversaries across the Atlantic and Pacific can no longer conduct business on the American continent. Granted, it is no longer warships and cannons keeping goods at bay, but rather prohibitive tariffs. Yet, these too are enforced through coercion, backed by state-of-the-art surveillance systems and, when necessary, physical force. Consequently, smugglers face grave dangers under this modern blockade; nevertheless, reports indicate they are already actively at work. They are risking everything to deliver a true win-win-win outcome for suppliers, consumers, and themselves. A toast to these new heroes of the black market!