License Fees. 
167 
a middle policy, by compelling the peddler to take out a state 
license first and pay a sum into the state treasury for it, and 
allowing each county to grant a second license for a fixed sum, 
which license is good only within county limits. Some states 
even allow townships to grant or refuse licenses. 1 
The most common method of fixing the amount of the fees, is 
a result of an early attempt to make it conform roughly to the 
amount of goods carried by the peddler. In the earlier days 
the best customers of the peddler were the people who lived 
away from the main roads of travel and distant from any 
trading center. On account of the lack of good wagon roads, 
it was customary for the peddler either to carry a pack him¬ 
self, or to have one or more pack animals for the purpose. The 
number of horses, therefore, came to be a pretty good method 
of estimating the amount of goods which he carried. This fact 
was seized upon by the law makers as a standard for measuring 
license charges. 2 This system has been introduced in many 
states and continued in use in its primitive form, even after 
wagon roads became common everywhere so that vehicles could 
take the place of pack animals. One or two states have, how¬ 
ever, recognized this, and put peddlers with one horse and 
vehicle in a class by themselves. California has simplified it 
still more by having only two classes, namely, peddler on foot, 
and peddler with a wagon. Rhode Island 3 has made the amount 
of the fee depend upon the size and character of the territory 
within which it is valid, and charges $60 for a license for the 
entire state, $30 for the county of Providence, and $10 for any 
other county. Some states have peddlers’ licenses for river 
traders, the cost of which is gauged by the tonnage of the 
water-craft which they use. 4 A new departure, which is espe- 
1 N. D., 1890, Ch. 142, par. 4; Me., 1895, Rev. Stat., p. 296; Wis., 1870, 
Ch. 72, par. 3, and 1895, Ch. 81. 
2 The old form of the law recognized three classes, as follows: (1) peddler 
on foot, (2) peddler with one horse, (3) peddler with two horses. The later 
laws often run as follows: (1) peddler on foot, (2) peddler with one horse 
and vehicle, (3) peddler with two horses and vehicle. 
3 Also New Hampshire, 1878, 27, 3; Ohio, 1882, 79, 80. 
4 Florida: boats of 20 tons, $30; of less tonnage, $10. Arkansas, 1873, 
par. 20. 
