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Urdahl—Historical Survey of Fee Systems. 
developed, owing to the fact that they were taken directly from 
the English system of jurisprudence. Finally a ferment, in the 
form of dissatisfaction, was present which was destined to lead 
to the gradual abolition of the fee system, as a means of direct 
remuneration of public officials. 
CHAPTER VI. 
FEES IN THE EARLY COMMONWEALTHS (1787-1830.) 
A. GENERAL TENDENCIES. 
The revolution does not represent any definite break or divid¬ 
ing line in the development of the fee system. The increased 
industrial and political activity of the decades following the 
war, forced to the front the necessity of state regulation of vari¬ 
ous matters, which necessity had not been felt during the colo¬ 
nial days. The political self-consciousness of the individual 
commonwealths, which was particularly strong during this 
youthful period, manifested itself in more direct state interfer¬ 
ence with the affairs of individuals than in any succeeding 
epoch. In general the individual state (commonwealth) was the 
important political unit, to which all eyes were turned. This 
often exercised its authority directly, without the use of the in¬ 
termediate political units, in the form of the city, county, and 
township organizations, so often employed at the present day. 
The individual citizen was then likely to meet or violate a state 
law or state regulation at every turn; while now it is the mu¬ 
nicipal ordinances with which men come in most direct contact. 
Local and special laws therefore were the order of the day in 
every legislature. State regulation and state activity in one 
locality required one schedule of fees to pay all expenses, and 
in another locality a different rate. 
