disposed of. to the Informer who shall prosecute his Information to Forfeitures how Effect, and the other Half to the Treasury of this State, unless the Prosecution be made by an Informing Officer, in which Case the whole Forfeiture shall belong to the Treasury of the State. And it is enjoined on all Informing Officers, and recommended to all other Persons to be vigilant in detecting and prosecuting all Breaches of this Act. Act's Continuance. This Act shall continue in Force until the rising of the General Assembly in October next, and no longer. to be transported on Certificate being procured. [1777, p. 478] An Act in Addition to, and for the Alteration of some Part of the Law of this State, relating to Embargoes. Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That when any Person or Persons shall purGoods allowed chase or procure any Article of Goods, Wares, Merchanthro' this State, dize, or Commodity whatsoever, from any other State, in order to transport through this State, shall immediately, upon his or their coming into this State, apply to the next Assistant or Justice of the Peace for a proper Certificate for that Purpose. That upon such Person or Persons producing sufficient Evidence, to the Satisfaction of such Assistant or Justice of the Peace, that such Goods, &c. were procured bona fide in some other State, and not in this, and that such Person or Persons so applying are friendly to the Liberties of America, such Assistant or Justice of the Peace shall certify the same accordingly, by Writing under his Hand; in which Case such Person or Persons so obtaining such Certificate, shall have free Liberty to transport such Article, &c. through this State, without Hindrance or Molestation. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That whensoever any of the Inhabitants of this State shall apply to an Assistant or Justice of the Peace, for Liberty to transport out of this State, by Land or Water, so much of their Produce (excepting Sheep's-Wool, and Cloathing Produce carried of every Kind) as shall be sufficient to purchase a sufficient Quantity of Salt for the Use of their Families respectively, and that only; such Assistant or Justice of the Peace with the Assistance of two or more of the selectmen of the respective Towns to which such Person or Persons (so applying) belongs, shall consider and adjust out to purchase salt. the Quantity of Produce that ought to be permitted: And such Assistant or Justice of the Peace, with the Advice of said Select-men, is hereby directed to grant such Permits for that Purpose accordingly. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That Bonds taken. whenever a Permit is applied for (by Vertue of this Act) to transport Produce by Water, it shall be the Duty of the Authority granting the same, to require Bond with Surety, of the Person or Persons applying for the same, to the Amount of three Times the Value of the Articles of Produce so permitted, that he or they will not dispose of the same to the Enemies of this State, but will apply the Avails thereof for the purchase of Salt, and that only. [1778, p. 482] An Act enabling the Civil Authority and Select-men in the several Whereas it may frequently happen, during the Course of the present War, that the Continental Troops, and Militia within this State, may be ordered into the several Towns in this State, either for Winter Quarters, or for the Defence of such Towns, whereby it may become necessary that some suitable Person be appointed in the respective Towns as a Barrack- Master, to provide Barracks or Houses fit and proper for the reception of such Troops. Therefore, Preamble. Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That whenever any Corps of the Continental Forces, or Militia within this State, shall be properly ordered into any Town within this State, either to take up Winter Quarters, or for the Defence of such Town, the Civil Authority and Select-men of such Town, on Application to them made, by the Commanding Officer of such Corps, for Barracks as aforesaid, be, and they are hereby authorized and directed to appoint some proper Person in such Town, a Barrack-Master, to provide Barracks or Houses suitable, Barrack - Masfor the Reception of such Troops, who shall immediately take up such House, Houses or Parts of Houses, Shops, Stores, or other Buildings as may be necessary for the Accommodation of such Troops, taking the Advice of the Civil Authority and Select-men of such Town therein. And in Case such Building cannot be procured by such Barrack-Master, with the Consent and Approbation of ters appointed. Their Duty. the Owner or Owners thereof, then it shall be the Duty of such Barrack-Master, to apply to any one Assistant or Justice of the Peace within such Town, for a Warrant to impress such House, Houses, or other Buildings for the Purpose aforesaid, who is hereby authorized and directed to grant such Warrant, directed to some proper Officers, commanding him to impress such Buildings as aforesaid, and upon return made of such Warrant, to the Authority who granted the same, said Authority is impowered and directed, to tax all the Cost that shall have arisen thereon. This Act to continue in Force till the rising of this Assembly in May next, and no longer. Preamble. [1778, p. 485] An Act for the regulation of the Prices of Labour, Produce, Manufactures, and Commodities within this State. Whereas the Congress of the United States of America, premissing the Necessity of reducing the Quantity of circulating Medium, in order to support its Value, have recommended to the several States, in the strongest Terms, to raise Supplies for carrying on the War, by Taxes; to draw in and cancel all the Bills of Credit, by them respectively emitted, (small Change under a Dollar excepted) to refrain from further Emissions, and to appoint Commissioners to meet in three Divisions to regulate and ascertain the Prices of Labour, Manufactures, internal Produce, and Commodities imported from foreign Parts. And Commissioners from the States of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, RhodeIsland and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, NewYork, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, having met at NewHaven, and agreed on a Regulation of Prices for said States, have reported their Doings to this Assembly, which Report is accepted and approved. Wherefore, considering that the Quantity of circulating Medium will be in some Measure reduced by the Means aforesaid, which will tend to facilitate the Reduction of the present unequal and exorbitant Prices of Articles, and put a stop to that growing and alarming Evil, which is not only big with the greatest Injustice to the respective States and to the Individuals thereof, but threatens the Dissolution of our Armies and the Ruin of the States, unless timely prevented by a vigorous Exertion of the several States, in carrying into Execution the System of Regulations recommended by Congress as aforesaid. The Price of stated. Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the Authority of the same, Labour, ManuThat from and after the twentieth Day of March next, the factures, &c. several Kinds and Articles of Labour, Manufactures, internal Produce, and Commodities imported from foreign Parts, herein enumerated and described, shall not, in this State, exceed the Rates or Prices at which they are stated in this Act, viz. That the various Kinds of Labour, of Farmers, Mechanicks and others, shall not exceed the Rate of seventyfive per Cent. Advance on the Prices which they were respectively at in the same Places in this State in the various Seasons of the Year 1774. Rate of Labour Price of Wheat, rye Meal, Oats, Good merchantable Wheat, Peas, and white Beans, Peas, Beans, Rye, Nine shillings and nine pence per Bushel; Rye or rye Wheat Flour, InMeal, Six shillings and six pence per Bushel; Oats, dian Corn, Pork, Three shillings per Bushel; good merchantable Wheat Flour, Twenty seven shillings per Hundred; IndianCorn, Four shillings and six pence per Bushel; Pork well fatted weighing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty Pounds per Hog, Five pence half-penny per Pound; from one hundred and fifty to two hundred Pounds per Hog, Six pence per Pound; ditto weighing more than two hundred Pounds per Hog, Six pence half-penny per Pound; American made Cheese of the best Quality, Cheese, Nine pence per Pound; best Grass fed Beef Hide and Beef, Tallow, Thirty-five shillings per hundred Pounds neat; best stall-fed Beef with the Hide and Tallow, Fortyeighty shillings per Hundred neat, and so in due Proportion for Beef of inferior Quality; good Butter per Firkin or Cask, One shilling and three pence per Pound; fresh Butter by the smaller Quantity, One shilling and four Butter, pence per Pound; raw Hides, Four pence half-penny per Raw Hides, Pound; good well-tanned Sole-Leather per Pound, Two Sole Leather, shillings; Skins and all kinds of Curried-Leather in due Skin & curried Proportion; Mens good neat-leather Shoes common Sort, Leather, Shoes, twelve Shillings a Pair; best Calf-Skin ditto, fifteen Shillings; Womens and Childrens Shoes to be in usual and due Proportion to the Price of Mens Shoes; bloomery Iron at the Place of manufacture, Forty-eight pounds Iron, per Ton, and in Proportion for a less Quantity; refined Iron, Fifty six pounds per Ton, and in Proportion for a less Quantity; pig Iron, Eighteen pounds per Ton; best American manufactured Steel fit for edged Tools, Two Steel, shillings per Pound; common Steel made in America, West-India Rum, Sugar, Coffee, Whiskey, N. England One shilling and four pence per Pound, with Addition of the Cost of Land Carriage of the Iron with which the Steel is made, if any be; good West-India Rum by Wholesale, Eighteen shillings per Gallon; Molasses, Nine shillings per Gallon; best Muscovado Sugar, Ten pounds per Hundred groce Weight; and all other Sugars in usual Proportion, according to Quality; Coffee not exceeding Four shillings and six pence per Pound by the Hundred; good Whiskey, Seven shillings per Gallon; New-England Rum, Geneva, Brandy, and other distilled Spirits not before enumerated, not to exceed Twelve shillings per Gallon, that there may be allowed the Cost of Transportation or Carriage of any of the Articles before enumerated, from the Place of their Growth, Manufacture, or the first Port of Delivery in this or any other of the United States, to the Place of Sale, not exceeding the Rate herein after stated for Land Carriage, in Addition to the Prices to them affixed as aforesaid. That the Price of Team Work or any Kind of Transportation, by Land, shall not exceed tee rate of Two shillings and six pence for the Carriage of twenty Hundred neat Weight per Mile, including all Expences attending the same. That no Kinds of AmeriManufactures can Manufactures and internal Produce, not particularly enumerated. enumerated in this Act, shall be estimated or sold at Prices exceeding seventy-five per Cent. Advance on the Prices they were usually sold at in the several Parts of Hemp, Flax, this State in the Year 1774. That the Price of Hemp, Woollen and lin: Flax, Sheep's Wool, woollen and linen Cloths, Stockings, ings, Felt Hats, Felt Hats, Wire and wool Cards, manufactured in AmerCards, Salt, ica, shall not be sold at more than double the Price they Team Work. and Produce not Sheeps Wool, en Cloths, Stock Wire and wool or Captured, were at in the several Parts of the State in the Year 1774. That Salt manufactured in this State, at the Place where made, shall not exceed Twenty-seven shillings per Bushel. Goods imported That no Goods, Wares, or Merchandize imported from foreign Parts and brought into this State by Capture, or otherwise, not herein particularly enumerated and stated, shall exceed the Rate of one Dollar Continental Currency for each Shilling Sterling, Prime Cost of such Goods in Europe, or other foreign Places where the same are purchased, exclusive of all other Charges when sold from the Importer or Captors, excepting only the following jor Articles, viz. All Kinds of woollen and linen Goods and Checks suitable for the Army,-Broad cloths not exceeding Seven shillings Sterling per Yard, and other woollen Cloths in that Proportion in Value, Hollands and Checks Clothing the Army. |