128 
Urdahl—Historical Survey of Fee Systems. 
to fix the standards of weights and measures; but Congress has 
never done so. The individual states therefore adopted and en¬ 
forced their own standards. Some of them made the sealer of 
weights and measures a state officer, while others attached the 
duties and emoluments of the office to some other state office. 
Besides the state sealer, there were subordinate county sealers, 
all of them paid by fees collected from those who had their 
scales and measures tested. To provide further against the use 
of fraudulent scales, it was enacted that dealers should have 
their instruments of measurement sealed at stated intervals; 
which resulted in considerable pecuniary gain to this office. ) 
It is noticeable that a large number of these and similar fees 
were paid for services performed by the government to protect 
the public, and more especially the consumers, against fraud on 
the part of the seller. These regulations, which to us seem al¬ 
most superfluous, were at that time very necessary, because of 
the imperfection of competition. The buyer was as a rule al¬ 
most helpless against the frauds of the seller. No way was 
open to him to detect or avoid imperfection in the scales or 
measures, unless the government gave him the means. Adultera¬ 
tions and goods of inferior grades might be imposed upon him 
with impunity, unless there was an inspection law to which he 
might appeal. Oppression, fraud, discrimination against the 
weak, were the evils which were feared, and which many of 
these laws attempted to guard against. The fees were payments 
for real services to the seller as well as the buyer. The seal of 
a public inspector added pecuniary value to the goods, while to 
the buyer it was a valuable safe-guard against fraud and adul¬ 
terations. 
F. REGULATION BY MEANS OF LICENSES. 
Some states found it necessary to regulate the legal profes¬ 
sion, and at a very early date prescribed examinations and the 
payment of license fees before admission to the bar was granted. 1 
Laws against over-charges by attorneys were not uncommon, 
1 Laws Mass., 1803, II, 735. Admission to court of Common Pleas, 
$20; admission to practice in Supreme Court, $30; degree of Barrister at 
Law, $40. 
