offenses at the common law, a careful examination shows, that these offenses were made crimes by statute from a very early period; and there is no authentic record, which my efforts have been able to discover, of the existence of either of these offenses prior to those statutes, which are cited by Coke, in the third volume of his Institutes. The earliest statute of this kind after the Norman conquest, which it is necessary to mention, is the Act 25 Edw. III. Stat. 4, A.D. 1350, which reads as follows:

"CAP. III.

"The penalty of him that doth forestal wares, merchandise, or victual.

"ITEM, it is accorded and established, That the forestallers of wines, and all other victuals, wares, and merchandises that come to the good towns of England by land or by water, in damage of our lord the King and of his people, if they be thereof attainted at the suit of the King, or of the party, before mayor, bailiff, or justices thereto assigned, or elsewhere in the King's court; and if they be attainted at the King's suit by indictment, or in other manner, the things forestalled shall be forfeited to the King, if the buyer thereof hath made gree to the seller; (2) and if he have not made gree of all, but by earnest, the buyer shall incur the forfeiture of as much as the forestalled goods forfeited do amount to, after the value as he bought them, if he have whereof; (3) and if he have not whereof, then he shall have two years' imprisonment, and more, at the King's will, without being let to mainprise, or delivered in other manner; (4) and if he be attainted at the suit of the party, the party shall have the one half of such things forestalled and forfeit, or the price, of the King's gift, and the King the other half."

Thereafter came the Act 3 & 4 Edw. VI., Cap. XXI., "An act for the buying and selling of butter and cheese," which provided, "Be it enacted by the authority of this present parliament, That no person or persons after the feast of the Annunciation of our Lady next coming, shall buy to sell again any butter or cheese, unless he or they sell the same again by retail in open shop, fair or market, and not in gross: (2) upon pain of forefeiture of the

double value of the same butter and cheese so sold contrary to the tenor of this present act."

Thereafter came the Statute 5 & 6 Edward VI., Cap. XIV., entitled "An Act against Regrators, Forestallers, and Ingrossers," which gave a general definition of these offenses, and provided their punishments. Section I provided, "that whatsoever person or persons, that after the first day of May next coming shall buy or cause to be bought, any merchandise, victual, or any other thing whatsoever, coming by land or by water toward any market or fair to be sold in the same, or coming toward any city, port, haven, creek or road of this realm or Wales, from any parts beyond the sea to be sold, (3) or make any bargain, contract or promise, for the having or buying, of the same or any part thereof so coming as aforesaid, before the said merchandise, victuals or other things, shall be in the market, fair, city, port, haven, creek or road, ready to be sold; (4) or shall make any motion by word, letter, message or otherwise, to any person or persons, for the inhancing of the price or dearer selling of any thing or things above mentioned, (5) or else dissuade, move or stir any person or persons coming to the market or the fair, to abstain or forbear to bring or convey any of the things, above rehearsed, to any market, fair, city, port, haven, creek or road to be sold, as is aforesaid, (6) shall be deemed, taken, and adjudged a forestaller."

Section II. provided, "That whatsoever person or persons, that after the said first day of May shall by any means regrate, obtain, or get into his or their hands or possession, in any fair or market, any corn, wine, fish, butter, cheese, candles, tallow, sheep, lambs, calves, swine, pigs, geese, capons, hens, chickens, pigeons, conies, or other dead victual whatsoever, that shall be brought to any fair or market within this realm or Wales to be sold, and do sell the same again in any fair or market holden or kept in the same place, or in any other fair or market within four miles thereof,

shall be accepted, reputed and taken for a regrator or regrators."

Section III. provided, "That whatsoever person or persons, that after the said first day of May shall ingross or get into his or their hands by buying, contracting, or promise-taking, other than by demise, grant, or lease of land or tithe, any corn growing in the fields, or any other corn or grain, butter, cheese, fish, or other dead victuals whatsoever, within the realm of England, to the intent to sell the same again, shall be accepted, reputed and taken an unlawful ingrosser or ingrossers."

Section VII. contained certain specific exceptions to the sweeping general provisions of the act, such as the cases of innkeepers buying for the purpose of selling to their guests, fishmongers, butchers, and poulterers buying "such thing. as concern his or their own faculty, craft or mystery (otherwise than by forestalling), which shall sell the same again upon reasonable prices by retail," with others which need not here be mentioned.

Section IX. prohibited the sale of cattle and sheep by any person within five weeks after his purchase thereof. Section XIII. allowed any person to "buy, engross and keep in his or their granaries or houses, such corn of the kinds aforesaid" as should be bought under prices specified in the act, "at all times hereafter, when wheat shall be commonly at the price of vi. s. viii. d. the quarter or under," and when other grains should be under certain other specified prices.

As to this act and other similar acts, it is to be noted, that no distinction is made between the acts of single individuals, and of combinations of individuals. The crime consisted in "buying to sell again," in "making any motion by word, letter, message, or otherwise . . . for the inhancing of the price or dearer selling of anything or things above mentioned," in "getting into his or their hands by buying, contracting, or promise-taking . . . to the intent to sell again." It was the attempt to raise prices which constituted the crime. The crime was the

same, whether committed by one person singly, or by several persons in combination. It is evident that these statutes, as to "regrating," "ingrossing," and "forestalling," were part of the comprehensive attempt to control prices by statute.

The Act 5 & 6 Edward VI., Cap. XV., entitled “An Act against Regrators and Ingrossers of Tanned Leather,' provided "That from and after the first day of May next coming, no person or persons, of what estate, degree or condition soever he or they be, shall buy or engross, or cause to be bought or engrossed, any kind of tanned leather, to the intent to sell the same again." Other sections allowed saddlers, cordwainers and other artificers to buy such quantities of leather as should be necessary for the carrying on of their trades. Section V. prohibited altogether the shipping of boots, shoes and similar articles "to the intent to carry, transport or convey over the seas as merchandise to be sold or exchanged there." Section VII. provided "That no sadler, girdler, cordwainer, nor other artificer, dwelling within the City of London and the suburbs of the same, which shall cut the same tanned leather as is aforesaid, to the intent to make wares thereof, shall curry or dress any of the aforesaid tanned leather in his or their own house or houses, or by his or their servant or servants."

It is seen, that these and other similar statutes, if enforced, would have compelled producers to be their own salesmen, would have abolished the occupation of the middleman or merchant, and made utterly impossible the trade and commerce which experience has shown to be necessary for the life of all large communities. Buying and selling at wholesale is always conducted with the purpose of "inhancing prices." It is a commercial process which is absolutely necessary, in order to ensure the presence in the market of merchandise in quantities sufficiently large, to supply the needs of large communities. Such statutes could be passed only in a rudimentary stage of society, when its needs are imperfectly comprehended,

and when the actual practical results of such legislation have not been ascertained by experience.

So far the protection of the law had been in the main given to buyers. But every member of the community is a seller as well as a buyer. He is a seller of his own labor, or of its products. He is a buyer of the labor of others, or of its products. In the one capacity, he is no more entitled to artificial and arbitrary aid from the law, than he is in the other. But if this were not so, if the entire community were, in fact, divided into two distinct classes, of buyers and sellers, if the law undertakes to keep prices down for the benefit of buyers, it is also under the obligation to keep prices up for the benefit of sellers.

This obligation the lawgivers of the time recognized and accepted.

Accordingly we find statutes passed with the intent of keeping prices up. Of such we find an example in the Acts 14 Rich. II., Cap. IV. and VI., which are as follows:

14 RICHARD II., A.D. 1390.

"CAP. IV.

"Of whom denizens may buy wools, and where; but they shall not regrate them.

"ITEM, to keep the price of wools the better, That no denizen of England, shall buy no wools but of the owners of the sheep and of the tithes, except in the staple and that no denizen regrate wools nor other merchandises of the staple privily nor apertly, upon pain to forfeit the value of the thing regrated and that the justices of peace in the country have power to enquire, and shall enquire from time to time of such English regrators and of the weights of the staple, and punish them by the pain aforesaid. And that no Englishman buy any wool of any person, but for himself or for his own use, as to sell at the staple, and for to make cloth."

"CAP. VI.

"English merchants shall freight only in English ships.

"ITEM, That all merchants of the realm of England shall freight