108 
Urdahl—Historical Survey of Fee Systems. 
from her license money. The high peddlers’ and Indian trad¬ 
ers’ license fees have already been mentioned. Billiard table li¬ 
censes in connection with ordinaries were also introduced very 
early in the South. 1 Ferries were licensed every where, but fees 
were at first rarely charged for the privilege. 2 Many other li¬ 
cense fees were imposed at different times, but none of them 
seem of sufficient importance to deserve special consideration 
here. 
C. COLONIAL REGULATION OF FEES. 
As the interior of the colonies developed, it is but natural 
that means of transportation should become of increasing im¬ 
portance. The attention of the colonial legislative bodies came 
to be directed more and more to ferries, toll-bridges, toll-roads, 
and other transportation facilities. 3 At first the permission 
to build them and levy toll for their use, was granted by special 
acts. 4 In some colonies, however, these rights were granted by 
the governors. The regulation of the amount of fees to be 
charged was, as a rule, left to the legislative council, which ex¬ 
ercised this right very frequently. But in spite of the best 
regulation, and in spite of the heavy penalties imposed for vio¬ 
lations, unjust and discriminating tolls continued to be col¬ 
lected by the various ferry-men and toll-gatherers. Complaints 
were also made that the judges, sheriffs, clerks, and other fee 
collecting officers, connected with the courts, charged illegal and 
extortionate amounts for their services. 
The legislative bodies made numerous attempts to prevent 
these abuses. But with each new regulation which checked some 
existing abuse of the fee-system, some other subterfuge 5 or way 
of evading the law, so as to collect heavy fees, was often in- 
1 South Carolina in 1741 charged 40s for billiard table licenses. 
2 In Massachusetts in 1781 the clerk making out the ferry license was 
allowed to charge 5s therefor. Laws, Dorsey, I, 176. 
3 Ferry tolls regulated, Colonial Laws of Mass, (reprint), p. 151. 
4 Mass. Law, Feb. 14, 1797; 1694; 1726,1760, etc. 
6 Separate fees were charged in Virginia for each of several small parcels 
of land, when one fee would suffice. Bacon’s laws attempt to remedy 
this. Statutes at Large, Henning, II, 355. 
