124 CASTOROLOGIA. 



perpetrated in the manufacture of the said hats, putting first a 

 layer of beaver, which makes the inside of the hat, then a second, 

 which is only English rabbit's hair, and above that a third, which is 

 beaver. And again, in order that all may conform to a general rule, 

 that the master hatters will be forced to make a declaration if they 

 wish to work in beaver, or in wool and rabbit's hair, and forbidden 

 to work against the terms of their agreement, and that it will be en- 

 joined on the master hatters who have made the choice of working 

 in beaver, to put on each hat their particular mark before they are 

 put in the dye, according to the statutes and decrees under penalty 

 of confiscation and fine. And further, that it may be permitted to 

 the said Liberti to continue in the Hopital de la Trinite, or such 

 other place as it may please the Court to designate, the manufac- 

 ture of beaver hats by all the masters and journe^'men, who choose 

 to work there, and will be qualified for the offers which the said 

 lyiberti makes to furnish them with prepared beaver, and to pay 

 them for the workmanship of each hat well and duly made (which 

 is the work of half a day) the sum of forty cents (quarante sols), and 

 to suppl}^ for the present, fine and well made hats, to the public for 

 the sum of quarante-quatre livres (about $8. 80), and in the month 

 of January next, to give them for quarante livres (about $8.00), and 

 according to the quantity which will be forthcoming in the follow- 

 ing years, to moderate the price in proportion ; that the said Liberti 

 may be permitted to seize and hold in the hatter's shops, as well as 

 in other places, beaver hats which they may find mixed, defective, 

 falsified, and not marked with the customary marks of the masters 

 who may have made them, and that the penalties and fines will be 

 awarded, half as the profit of the plaintiff, and the other half as 

 the profit of the poor children of the Trinite, the costs deducted, and 

 in addition, to ordain such rule for the public as it may please the 

 Court of the one part, and the sworn master hatters of the town of 

 Paris, appellees and defendants, of the other.' " 



Four years later than this — in 1638 — the British Parliament is- 

 sued a proclamation, strictly forbidding the use of any material for the 

 making of hats, excepting ' ' Beaver stuff"" ' or " Beaver wool, ' ' and we 

 learn that in 1663, a good beaver hat was worth ^4 5^., which very 



