Rum Runners of the Baltic: Liquor Contraband as a Form of Unofficial Trade in Interwar Europe

• In Event: Unofficial Trade and Business Practices in the Baltic Region in the 20th Century

Abstract

This paper exposes the largely unknown history of alcohol contraband from East Central Europe to Scandinavia in the interwar era when rum runners supplied entire "dry countries" with alcohol. Using new archival evidence from the most important source countries Germany and Poland, and U.S. diplomatic dispatches this paper offers a comprehensive and transnational perspective on Baltic liquor contraband which includes a first-time analysis of contraband supply chains. Taking into account that high demand for illegal alcohol sparked a rapid growth and professionalization of smuggling processes, this paper studies the development of contraband as a form of large-scale illicit trade focusing on its transnational character, interpersonal networks as well as national and international entanglements of anti-smuggling policies.

Author

• Adrian Mitter, Herder Institute Marburg (Germany) / U of Toronto (Canada)