The Early Period in the United States. 
127 
advantage of the buyer as the seller to have the commodities in¬ 
spected. Tobacco 1 was therefore subject to the most rigorous 
inspection law, and one state even attempted to regulate the 
amount which should be grown in order to prevent fluctuations 
in price. Without such inspection, a debtor might pay his 
debt with a very inferior grade of tobacco, while on the other 
hand the creditor might refuse to accept the best brand of to¬ 
bacco for any assignable reason. The same is true in regard to 
the other commodities. 2 Debts were paid in any one of the 
many staples. The inspection of these may be compared to the 
government assaying of the precious metals in the older coun¬ 
tries. The inspection of other articles originated in the exten¬ 
sive export trade of each state; especially in the north, where 
the articles which came under the inspection laws were largely 
those which constituted the exports. Thus we find pot and 
pearl ashes 3 subject to rigid inspection in many states; salted 
fish, beef, pork, flour, and many other commodities were very 
early made subject to compulsory inspection. The fact that peo¬ 
ple were accustomed to the inspection of some articles made it 
easy to extend the system of compulsory inspection to other 
commodities. Lumber, hoops, shingles, grain, bark, leather, 
hides, and many others, were added to the list which required 
the mark or brand of the public inspector before they could be 
sold. In the south the inspection laws affected pitch, tar, tur¬ 
pentine, tobacco, flour, lumber, spirits; in short, all the chief 
staples. 
Not only the inspection but the gauging and measuring of 
commodities was required to be done by a public official, who 
received fees for his services. This brings up another subject 
which was of fundamental importance to the early common¬ 
wealths, that is, the regulation of weights and measures. The 
Federal Constitution 4 provides that Congress shall have power 
1 Account of tobacco inspection. Bruce, Econ. Hist. Va., I, 304. 
2 Shingles were used to pay fines. Ibid., II, 158. 
3 Ashes was the most important form in which the American forests 
were utilized for export. Laws. Mass., 1807, II, 901-928. Laws , New 
Jersey, 1821, R. S., p. 1043. Laws, N. H., 1785, p. 389. 
4 Federal Constitution , Art. I, Sec. 7. 
