Type: Spy Power
Effect Text: Draw two cards, all other players draw one.
Flavor Text: "Trinkets and spices from the far reaches of the empire!" (Best not ask why the prices are so low.)
Artwork: The moneylender (The antique dealer) by Domenico Induno (1853)
Strategy:
Smuggler is effectively a one-turn stall card. Although you get to draw more cards than your opponent, it works out that all players will net one extra card, relative to before was played. However, it is now your opponent’s turn, so you not only replenished cards but also stalled. Smuggler is a great card to play when throwing a round.
About the card:
Much of colonial and exploration history can be summed up in this one thought: "Go east and bring back spices and silk". In our modern globalized world this is hard to understand, as spices are relatively cheap compared to most things you'd want to buy. But in the 1400s, a pound of ginger could cost as much as twelve days labor of a master carpenter.
So it is no wonder that states that could control the trade of these lucrative and light products quickly became the richest in Europe. When Venice and Genoa monopolized trade with the Ottomans, their bankers became the wealthiest families in Europe. Similarly, when the Dutch, Spanish, French, and English circumvented the Middle East with the advent of deep water navigation, they too became the richest and most powerful countries in Europe. Once alternative trade routes were established, new goods began to replace spices and silk including silver, slaves, cotton and tobacco. And while these other trades caused much harm and suffering in the world, it is hard to imagine them starting up without the allure of Chinese silk and Indonesian spices.
