September 1645: An Ordinance concerning the Excise.

September, 1645

[16 September, 1645.]

Goods chargeable with Excise not to be removed without license.

Whereas divers the Buyers of Exciseable Commodities conceiving themselves not liable to any Penalties, Fine, or Forfeiture for any offence whatsoever committed against the Ordinances of Excise, because in no Article of any the said Ordinances they are particularly and expressly named so to be; have thereby been emboldened to use all manner of indirect practises whereby to deceive the State of the duty of Excise. And whereas by pretence of roomaging and removing of Goods unsold, and yet in the first hand, from one place to another, much fraud and deceit hath been used to the evill intent aforesaid: Now the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, taking the premises into consideration, for prevention of all such and other fraudulent and indirect practises hereafter, doe hereby Declare and Ordaine, That no person or persons whatsoever, shall remove, roomage, or carry from one house to another, any Goods or Commodities whatsoever, chargeable with this Dutie, though unsold, or that the Duty of Excise be already paid, without a Ticket, or an Officer appointed to that purpose by the Commissioners of Excise, under the Penalties in the thirteenth Article of the Ordinance of the eleventh of September, 1643. mentioned. Provided, that no officer so appointed, shall take or demand any Fee or Reward of any Merchant or other for that service.

Barter to be accounted Sale.

And be it further Declared and Ordained, That a barter or exchange of one sort of Goods for another, was and shall be accounted sale.

Penalties for non-obser; vance of above orders.; Bills of Sufferance.; What measures to be accounted as a Ton.; Merchants, etc., to deliver Accounts to Excise Commissioners.; Fine for refusal.; Indemnity.; Ord. 19 Feb. 1644/5, repealed.

And it is further Ordained and Declared by the Lords and Commons aforesaid, That for all Goods, Merchandize, and Commodities whatsoever, made exciseable by any the Ordinances of Parliament, which shall be bought, sold, bartered or delivered contrary to the true intent and meaning of the said thirteenth Article, or any other Article in any the said Ordinances, or whereof a true and perfect Entry shall not have been made, of weight, number, price and value; as well the Buyer as the Seller, shall be liable to such Penalties, Forfeitures, and Fines; and so to be levied and employed as in the said Article and Articles was Provided and Ordained for the Seller, Maker, Merchant, or Importer onely. Provided, and it is hereby intended. That that Commissioners of Excise shall not be hereby debarred, as they shall see cause, to grant any Bill of Sufferance, according to the Ordinance of the one and thirtieth of August last past. And it is further ordained and declared by Authority aforesaid, by way of explanation of the Schedule in the Ordinance of the eleventh of September, One thousand six hundred forty three, and for taking away all dispute and cavill concerning the content of a Tun of Wine, That two Butts, two Pipes, four Hogsheads (of what sort soever) six Teirces, three Punchions or Tertians, and eight Quarter Casks of Wine respectively, shall be accounted for one Tun. And all Merchants, Importers, Makers, Buyers, Retailers, and other Traders and Dealers in any Excisable Commodities, shall according to the true intent and meaning of the said recited Ordinance upon due notice by Ticket or Officer, make and deliver under their severall and respective hands in Writing, to the said Commissioners of Excise, as oft as they shall see cause, to require the same true and just Accounts of what Goods they have respectively imported, made, bought, sold, bartered, spent, or have then upon their hands, upon penalty of five pounds to be forfeited Toties Quoties for every refusall; to be so levied, and for such uses, as in the said Ordinance of the eleventh of September is prescribed. And it is hereby further Ordained, That as well the Commissioners of Excise, their Deputies and Officers, as all and every other person and persons which shall doe anything in execution of this present Ordinance, according to the true intent and meaning thereof. shall be therein from time to time protected and saved harmlesse, as well for what is past, as for what is to come, by the power and authority of both Houses of Parliament. And that the Ordinance of the nineteenth of February last past, concerning the Excise, shall be nulled and made void hereby.