Great Britain. Board of Customs and Excise : The national customs system in Great Britain dates back to the reign of Edward I. The collection of particular duties was at various times contracted out. By an ordinance in 1643, regulation of the collection of customs was entrusted to commissioners and collectors of customs, forming virtually a Board of Customs. In 1671, a Board of Customs was created by Letters Patent. A separate board of commissioners was established to manage the customs for Scotland after the Union with England in 1707. The permanent Board of Customs was amalgamated with the separate boards for Ireland and Scotland in 1823 to form a single board for the United Kingdom.
The first excise duties were levied in 1642 to finance the Parliamentary army. In 1909 the administration of excise duties was transferred to the Customs Department which became the Board of Customs and Excise.
Statutes of 1672 and 1686 extended the responsibilities of the Board of Customs beyond the boundaries of England to the Plantations, that is, to British overseas possessions. These responsibilities included not only the collection of duties on imports and exports, and the prosecution of delinquents, but also the enforcement of the Navigation Laws (requiring that goods be shipped in British or Plantation-built vessels), and the registration of ships. Consequently, customs officers reported on the vessels entering and leaving port as well as on the goods they carried.
The business of the Board of Customs was initially divided between two departments, known as the Northern and the Western. Management of colonial Customs affairs was assigned to a third department, known as the Plantations, in the mid-eighteenth century. A separate American Board of Customs, responsible for the colonies of British North America, with headquarters at Boston, had been authorized in 1767. Its activities were curtailed by the American Revolutionary War and it was formally abolished in 1784. Responsibility for the administration of customs in overseas possessions was transferred from the Board of Customs Commissioners in England to the various colonial governments in 1849-1853. Current Guide, Public Record Office, 1992 edition
