The French Fee System. 
87 
toxicating liquors to obtain a license before they could carry 
on their traffic. According to this law the fee or license charge 
was paid once for all; and was not collected periodically, as is 
usually the case at present. The transition to the system of 
annual licenses, based upon the annual payment of the license 
fee, took place about 1630 j 1 when a law was passed which re¬ 
quired all brewers and dealers in wine, cider, perry, and other 
drinks to pay a fee annually and obtain a license. 
Before 1789 the fee collected from saloons and similar resorts 
was very small, its principal object being to determine the ex¬ 
istence and location of the places which especially required po¬ 
lice supervision and surveillance. Many of the charges were 
levied by local authorities and were therefore widely different, 
being continually subject to change. But there were a great 
many extra fees which had to be paid before the privilege sought 
for could be obtained; among others may be mentioned the 
gaugers’ fees, liquor inspection fees, and others of the same 
nature. The revenues from these were generally farmed out, 
and, as a result, these extras often amounted to more than the 
license fee proper. 2 
All these charges were abolished during the Revolution, but 
re-appeared soon after under their modern appellation, “ Droits 
de license, - which were at first required only of distillers. The 
law of 1814 placed brewers under the same requirement, and in 
the following year saloon keepers 3 were also required to pay an 
annual license fee for the privilege of selling liquors. The license 
however soon lost the character of permission or authorization 
which had at first been attributed to it. A law passed in 1851 
made the grant of the license depend upon the assent of the pre¬ 
fect; but this provision was repealed in 1880. At present the 
most important condition to be fulfilled is the payment of the 
fee, which varies in amount according to the kind of business. 
The brewer’s license fee depends upon the department in which 
it is located, and runs from sixty to one hundred francs; while 
the fee for liquor sellers’ licenses is graduated according to the 
1 Say, Dictionnaire de Finances , II, 468. 
2 Clamageran, Histoiri de VImpot en France , III, 75. 
3 Ibid., I, 417. 
