cus 



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common law, are to be determined by 

 the judges, who can over-rule a custom 

 that is against natural reason, &c. ; but 

 particular customs are determinable by 

 jury. See PRESCRIPTION. 



CUSTOM of London. It is a custom of 

 London, that where a person is educated 

 in one trade, he may set up another ; that 

 where a woman uses a trade without her 

 husband, she is chargeable alone, as a 

 feme sole merchant, and, if condemned, 

 dhall be put in prison till she pays the 

 debt; likewise the bail for her are liable, 

 if she absent herself, and the husband, in 

 these cases, shall not be charged. If a 

 debtor be afugitive, by the custom of Lon- 

 don he may be arrested before the day, 

 in order to find better security, &c. These 

 are customs of this city, different from 

 those of other places. 

 ~ CUSTOM of merchants. If a merchant 

 gives a character of a stranger to one 

 who sells him goods, he may be oblig- 

 ed to satisfy the debt of the stranger 

 for the goods sold, by the custom of 

 merchants. And when two persons are 

 found in arrears, upon an account ground- 

 ed on the custom of merchants, either 

 of them may be charged to pay the whole 

 sum due, &c. 



CUSTOMS, in commerce, the duties 

 or taxes payable upon the importation 

 or exportation of merchandize. They 

 appear to have been originally levied to 

 reimburse the sovereign for the expense 

 lie incurred in protecting foreign trade, 

 and were considered as taxes upon the 

 profits of the merchants, being imposed 

 equally upon all sorts of goods, necessaries 

 as well as luxuries, goods exported as 

 well as goods imported ; but at a high- 

 er rate on the goods of aliens than on 

 such as belonged to the merchants of the 

 country. 



The customs of England appear to 

 have originated from the ancient claim 

 of purveyance and pre-emption, or the 

 right of buying by the intervention of 

 the King's purveyors, for the use of the 

 royal household, at an appraised valuar 

 tion, in preference to all other persons, 

 and even without the consent of the 

 owner; this claim being extended to 

 goods imported from foreign parts, was 

 called prisage, and was levied by taking 

 a determined part of the goods for the 

 King's use, at' a price to be set by the 

 King, and called the King's price, which 

 was always lower than the current price. 

 Wine being the principal article of fo- 

 reign produce then in request, was the 

 chief object of this duty, and the claim 



was two tons from every ship laden with 

 twenty tons or more, one to be taken 

 before, and the other behind the mast. 

 A small duty of two shillings for every 

 ton of wine imported by merchant stran- 

 gers was called butlerage, from being 

 paid to the King's chief butler. 



From the charta mercatoria of Edw. I. 

 granted in 1304, it appears that there 

 were known and established customs or 

 duties long before that time, both on im- 

 portation and exportation, as the duties 

 then imposed were to be paid over and 

 above the old customs; which, with respect 

 to wool, the principal article of export, 

 was six shillings and eight pence for eve- 

 ry sack, and the new duty three shillings 

 and four pence. In the year 1354 the 

 whole revenue arising from the customs 

 of En gland was 82,426/. 18s. lOd. of which 

 the duties on the imported goods amount- 

 ed to only 5807. 6s. 8d. Nearly the whole 

 of the export duties was levied on wools 

 and wool-fells, and as the duties on wool 

 thus formed one of the chief branches of 

 the revenue of the crown, the exporta- 

 tion of this important ,material was en- 

 couraged, in order to augment the pro- 

 duce of the customs. 



The ancient customs of England have 

 usually been divided into three branches. 

 1. The duties upon wool and leather. 2. 

 The duty upon wine,which,being imposed 

 at so much per ton, was called a tonnage. 

 3. A duty upon all other goods, which, 

 being imposed at so much in the pound 

 of their supposed value, was called a 

 poundage. The first branch declined 

 when the woollen manufacture began to 

 make some progress in this country, and 

 has since wholly ceased, from the prohi- 

 bition of the exportation of wool. The 

 other two branches were usually granted 

 by the same act of parliament, and were 

 called the slibsidy of tonnage and pound- 

 age. The subsidy of poundage having 

 continued for a long period at one shilling 

 in the pound, or at five per cent, a subsi- 

 dy became the general denomination for 

 a custom duty at this rate per cent. The 

 original subsidy was levied according to 

 a book of rates established in the 12th 

 year of Charles II. and was called the old 

 subsidy, to distinguish it from the subsi- 

 dy of tonnage and poundage imposed in 

 1698. Other subsidies were imposed at 

 subsequent periods, differing from the 

 old subsidy only in being laid almost 

 wholly on goods imported, whereas that 

 included both imports and exports. 



The introduction of the funding sys- 

 tem occasioned very frequent impositions 





