Talk:William Cowie (merchant)

Article move
The following paragraph was left on the article. The discussion should happen here. - GB fan 17:38, 17 December 2016 (UTC)
 * This page has been redirected from William Clark Cowie alledgedly for missing an 'e' off Clark. However no evidence has been given that that is correct - his grave undeniably lacks the final 'e', as does other documentary evidence given on the INCORRECTLY TITLED German version. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Battang (talk • contribs) 14:05, 17 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Based on this and that this was an undiscussed move. I will move it back and wait for a discussion to happen. - GB fan 17:41, 17 December 2016 (UTC)

Thank you. Discussion and further research is under way. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Battang (talk • contribs) 00:03, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

Membership of WikiProject Organized Crime
, which is a Bot account run by, added the WikiProject Organized Crime banner to this article's Talk page but there is nothing mentioned in the article that seems to meet the inclusion criteria for that WikiProject. Why is this article of interest to that WikiProject? - Cameron Dewe (talk) 11:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Hello. The article is under Category:Scottish drug traffickers. I had skimmed all the articles from such categories before adding the banner. Under the header "Career until 1878" it says Cowie, along with two friends - Carl Schomburgk and John Dill Ross - founded the Labuan Trading Company, whose main task was to evade the Spanish naval blockade and bring weapons, opium, tobacco and goods to Sulu. No company ships were ever caught by the Spaniards. That is organised crime :-) —usernamekiran • sign the guestbook • (talk) 11:28, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the clarification. The article is not clear that evading the Spanish naval blockade was a criminal act, rather than a military action, since trading in weapons, opium and tobacco in Sulu appears to have been legal at the time. I think the article needs provide more explanation about the Spanish naval blockade, what was prohibited, and penalties for being caught. Since the trading appears to be welcomed by those in Sulu, the article needs to explain why it was not legal, as, given the historical nature of this article, editors should expect readers know nothing about the applicable law in Sulu at the time. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 20:11, 20 December 2021 (UTC)