‘Although the Prado text is rather vague as to what these men are up to, the Ayala text of 1799-1803 is very explicit: ‘Andalusian smugglers, near a road, soon to become highway robbers’. Their real occupation is confirmed by the ropes at lower left which apparently were to be used to tie up their victims. Sayre points outl that, in Goya's time, this etching could have been seen as a criticism of the government's inability to handle the Andalusian contrebandistas and the government's too high, royal excise taxes on tobacco. Because of these taxes and the resulting high price of tobacco, it became very worthwhile for the contrabandistas to smuggle tobacco from Gibraltar and Portugal.’

Johnson, R. S., Francisco Goya, Los Caprichos, R.S. Johnson Fine Art, Chicago, 1992, p. 48.