RULES ORDERS AND INSTRUCTIONS Made and Published by the COMMISSIONERS OF CUSTOMS and EXCIZE IN SCOTLAND To be observed by the several Officers conjunctly of both in relation as well to Customs as Excize of Forreign Goods upon Importation or Sale EDINBURGH Printed by Christopher Higgins in Harts-Close over against the Trone-Church 1656. BY THE COMMISSIONERS OF CUSTOMS and EXCIZE In SCOTLAND FOrasmuch as his Highness Council in Scotland for the Government thereof have been pleased for the most benefit and advantage of the Publick ease and commodity of Merchants and other Traders and Dealers to entrust the businesse of Customs and Excize to the care and management of one and the same Commissioners with Power to collect levie receive and take both the said Duties according to the Rules of them respectively imposed and setled to be received for th same in England by Act Ordinance Order or Declaration as well of his Highnesse as of Parliament in that behalf And forasmuch as the said Rules are many and various and which if neglected or omitted to be practised and put in execution may prove very prejudicial to the Commonwealth as well in the matter of Customs and Excize as by the Importing and Exporting of Prohibited Goods and Merchandize For Remedy whereof and to the end the several Collectors and other Officers imployed in and about the same may more fully understand the respective Duties of their Places and observe and keep an Uniformity of Actings and Proceedings in the due and regular mannagement of Affairs of the Customs and Excize respectively And that none may pretend ignorance The present Commissioners of Customs and Excize in Scotland aswell for the Reasons aforesaid and out of their fervent desire faithfully to discharge the great Trust incumbent on them as the tender regard they have in themselves of hindering any persons whatsoever ignorantly or unwittingly to commit any Offences in breach of the Laws Have therefore not only from the several Laws now in force in England and Scotland made drawn framed and published such Instructions to the several Officers employed in the several Ports as are most suitable to the juncture of things in this Nation And which therefore the several and respective Officers are hereby ordered and required to observe perform fulfill and keep but have also made collection of the several Fines Penalties and Forfeitures devised and made by the said Laws that so those whom their affection to their Country and the Common-wealth cannot restrain from using indirect practises in prejudice of the Publick Revenue thereof may be contained within due bounds from the fence they may have of the severity of the Law which they will draw upon themselves if they shall nevertheless continue wilfully to infringe and break the same Dated at LEITH the first day of September One thousand six hundred and fifty six Ja. Mac-Dowal Leo. Lytcot Edm. Syler Tho. Tucker INSTRUCTIONS For the severall COLLECTORS of CUSTOMS in the Ports of SCOTLAND as to Goods Inward and Outwards from or for beyond the Seas Collectors duly to attend at the Head Port. THE COLLECTORS of the severall and respective Ports of this Nation are duly and constantly from time to time by themselves or some other for whom they will be answerable when and as often as they shall have leave or may otherways be necessitated to absent themselves to give their diligent and constant attendance at the hours times and places appointed at the Custom-House of the Chief or Head Port of his District And because in many the Member-Ports the Merchants by reason of distance of Place cannot possibly make their Entries at the Chief or Head Port The Collector is by Commission under his Hand and Seal To commission one of his Waiters in a Member Port to appoint one of the Waiters of his Port which he in his judgment shall conceive to be most fit and apt for such a work and for whom he shall be responsible to attend and officiate in such Member-Port of his District in every thing mutatis mutandis as a Collecto but so far onely and no further than the Collector shall by such Commission particularly direct and appoint and all as shall be for the most ease and dispatch of the Merchant benefit and advantage of the Publick And the Name of such Waiter as he shall appoint he is from time to time to transmit to the Commissioners His Cash or Day and Ship-Books Every Collector for the better carrying on and managing the affair wherein he is intrusted as to Subsidy and Customs shall cause four severall fair Books to be prepared One of which is to be imployed and kept for a Cash or Day Book of all Moneys received for Customs Inwards or Outwards and two other of them for Ship Books Inwards and Outwards Collectors to appoint Waiters to attend the landing of Goods Vpon the arrivall of any Ship in any Port the Collector and chief Searcher in such Ports where any such Searcher is appointed or else the Collector alone is to nominate and direct by Warrant under their or his hand one or more of the Watters appointed to attend in that Fort or any other Port or Place of his Precinct or District to take charge of such Ships and to see the Goods and Merchandizes therein laden cleared and discharged according to such Warrant as he or they shall receive from the Collector and Cheque joyntly of the said Port where the same shall happen to be delivered and unladen But the Master is first to enter his Ship and make report upon Oath But no such Warrant is to be granted or issued before such time as the Master or Purser coming by way of Merchandize or with Commodities from any Port shall not onely enter openly in the Custome-house the name of the Ship and of the Master the Burden of whence and from what Place she is fraighted but also deliver under his hand and upon his Oath unto the Collector and Cheque a Bill of the Particulars and Contents of the whole Lading of the Ship with the Names of the severall Merchants and the Marks Package and outward form or Bulk of the Goods and Merchandizes according to his knowledge And shall also make Declaration upon Oath that he hath not broken Bulk since he came into the Port nor to any other Port of this Nation otherwayes than in the said Bill shall be expressed and shall answer to all such other Questions concerning the direct Quantity of Good 〈…〉 the said Ship as shall be demanded of him by the Collector and Cheque And in case it shall happen that he hath broken Bulk either in that or in any other Port then he shall also deliver upon his Oath the particulars of the said Goods so delivered in the Port or Ports where he brake Bulk Which Ent y and Declaration made as aforesaid shall be entred in words at length into the Ship-Book Inwards The same to be entred in
Merchant or other intending to lade or ship and so making Entry of any Goods Outwards for the Coast the Collector and Cheque are thereupon to make a Cocquet or Transire at the nature of his Entry shall require Their Cocquets and Transires to remain in the custody of the Collector and Cheque Which Cocquet or Transire is to remain in the joynt Custody of the said Collector and Cheque untill such time as the Merchant is or shall be ready to carry or ship his Goods on Board and then upon notice given thereof to be delivered to the Waiter appointed to attend that Ship in which they are to be laden who shall forthwith see the same done And if the Merchant have not before Till the Goods shall be shipped and then to be delivered to the Waiter to indorse he shall then give the Marks and Numbers of his Goods which shall be indorsed on the said Cocquet or Transire and the Waiter also shall write his name thereupon with the time when he saw the same shipped and presently after shall deliver the same back unto the chief Searcher or else unto the Collector where there is no chief Searcher who shall keep the same by him till the Ship be fully laden By him to the Searcher or Collector Who after ful lading and oath given by the Master search made Shal deliver the same or else one general Cocquet to such Master No Ships unlading to be d scharged before examination of Entries search of the same and then the Master or Purser thereof coming and making Declaration upon Oath that he hath received no Goods on Board but what have been laden by Cocquet Transire or Sufferance and the said Searcher or Collector or some Waiter appointed by him going on Board to search and finding no other or more Goods laden therein then for which there was or had been Cocquet Transire or Sufferance granted for doing thereof shall thereupon deliver the Cocquets and Transires remaining in his custody or else one general Cocquet for all unto the Master or Purser of the Ship who is to be cleared and discharged that She may proceed upon Her Voyage accordingly No Ships Inwards from the Coast are to be discharged or suffered to depart from the Key or have any Goods de novo put on Board before such time as the chief Searcher or Collector where there is no chief Searcher shall first have examined the particular Entryes with the Masters or Pursers Entry and finding the same to agree shall afterwards go on Board and see that there are no Goods left remaining on Board but that the whole Lading hath been really and truly delivered and discharged The same mutaris mutandis to be observed for and upon all Ships Inwards from beyond the Seas In passing of Goods from Port to Port the Collectors and other Officers What to be understood by Goods Customable are to understand by Goods Customable All Wares and Commodities growing wrought or manufactured within this Nation and all forreign Commodities and Merchandizes which have been imported and remained in this Nation viz. by an English-man above twelve Months and by a Stranger above nine Months and the Property altered by the sale thereof made by the first Importer INSTRUCTIONS For the COLLECTORS in levying of SUBSIDY and CUSTOMS Collector to receive according to the book of Rates c. THe Collector in every Port appointed for receiving of Subsidy and Customs upon all Goods Wares and Merchandize Imported into and Exported out of Scotland are faithfully to observe do and perform the same according to the Articles Rules and Directions of the present Book of Rates and such others as are directed to be received for or concerning the payment of the Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage or the Importation or Exportation or Transportation of Goods prohibited by any Statute Act or Ordnance of Parliament Ordinance or Order of his Highness the Lord Protector and his Councill now in force in England and become so in Scotland by the Union of both Nations And to proceed in all things belonging to the duty of his Place according to the same and according to such Rules and Instructions as he shall from time to time receive or have from the chief Commissioners in that behalf What Wine are to be accounted of the growth of the Levant What natives and strangers shall pay The Collector is to take notice That all Wines except Rhenish and French Wines are to be accounted of the growth of the Levant and to pay Customs accordingly In levying the Subsidy of Poundage the Collector is to collect receive and levy Five in the Hundred as a Generall Subsidy upon all Goods Inwards and Outwards aswell from the English and Scots Merchant as from the Merchant-Stranger and the Petty Customs of Three pence in the Pound more from all Strangers so as the Merchant-Stranger for every Twelve pence to be paid by the English or Scots Merchants upon every Pound or Twenty shillings sterling is to pay One shilling three pence Subsidy and Customs What stranger shall pay for Native Commodities and Manufactures Vpon Coal Pladding Salmon and all manner of Native-Commodities or Manufactures made thereof to be carried or shipped Outwards he is to collect from the Merchant-Stranger Five in the Hundred over and above the Five per Cent. and Petry-Customs aforesaid so as the Merchant-Stranger for every Twelve pence to be paid by the English or Scots-Merchant is to pay Two shillings three pence Subsidy and Customs And the Merchant-Stranger for those Commodities for which he is to pay double Subsidy as Lead Tin Double Subsidy and double petty Customs Woollen-Cloath and all or any Manufactures made of Wooll or part Wooll is also to pay double Petty-Customs and upon Woollen-Cloath he is to pay more an old Custom of Fourteen pence upon every Cloath Exported and proportionably upon new Draperies as they are reckoned for a Cloath in the Instructions annexed to the Book of Rates Natives inhabiting beyond the seas All English or Scots inhabiting beyond the Seas and sworn Subjects to forreign Princes are to pay Customs and other Duties as Strangers so long as they continue so Denizens to pay strangers Customs All Strangers made Denizens are to pay all Customs and Subsidies as strangers All great and small Coal exported being by Order of his Highness Councill in Scotland for the Government thereof bearing date the First of November Coal to be computed by the Tun not Chaldron 1655. rated to pay a certain Rate upon each Chaldron containing Twenty hundred weight Especiall care therefore is to be had in levying thereof That the Collector do not receive or take the same according to the Scots Chaldron which is more or less in sundry places where such Coal are shipped and laden but according to the number of Tuns or twenty hundred weights contained in every such Chaldron Coals shipt in strangers
to set the Rate and value of any Goods below the intrinsecall value or worth thereof nor any Manufacture imported at least then double the intrinsecall value thereof whether the same be imported by English Scots Linnen how to be rated Scots or Stangers But in the case of Scots Linnen shipped out the Collector of the Port where any such Linnen shall be exported is to set down the true value thereof And if the Merchant be not content with such valuing thereof the Merchant is to take his Oath of the value thereof and according to the value deposed by the Merchant the Collector is to receive the Customs at five pound for each hundred pounds worth according to an Order of his Highnesse Councill in Scotland for the Government thereof bearing date the first of November 1655. And because sundry Commodities of this nature have already been rated and do now pay in England as is hereafter expressed The Collector is therefore to take care What to be payed for snowt Tow. That Snowt Tow be rated at fourty shillings per Cent. and pay Custom accordingly That all Pan-tiles brought from Holland or elswhere be rated Pan-tiles and pay after the Rate of eighty pounds per Thousand That all Logwood Log-wood alias Blockwood or Campeachy Wood be rated and pay after the rate of Eighty pounds per Tun. That Lead-oare be rated at the value of Six pounds thirteen shillings four pence per Tun Lead-Oare containing Twenty hundred weight and paid after that rate by English and Scots And the same being a Native Commodity Strangers therefore upon Exportation are to pay double Subsidy and double petty-Customs That is to say Every Merchant stranger is to pay the duty for every Tun of the said Lead-oare after the rate or value of Thirteen pounds six shillings and eight pence besides double petty-Customs which is Six pence upon every Twenty shillings value according to that rate Coleseed and Coleseed Oyls That all Coleseed Oyls Imported and Coleseed Exported be rated and pay as Rapeseed Oyls and Rapeseed Outwards Horses are to be permitted Exportation upon Licence from his Highnesse or Council Horses to any the English Plantations in America upon payment of Twenty shillings Custom for each Horse according to an Ordinance of his Highnesse and Councill dated the 30. of January 1653. Repayment of half-subsidy No Repayment of any half Subsidy upon the Exporting of Goods formerly Imported is to be made unto any Merchant whatsoever without the expresse Order and Direction of the Commissioners therein Yet forasmuch as some difficulty may attend the doing thereof by reason of the distance of the Port where such Goods may happen to be Exported or shipped our unlesse somewhat be prepared and done upon the Place in order thereunto The Collector therefore of the Port where such Goods shall happen to be Exported and half Subsidy demanded is to satisfie himself whether the Goods upon which the said half-Subsidy is to be repaid if exported by or for a Strangers Accompt were Imported within Nine moneths and if by and for an English or Scots-man's Accompt within Twelve moneths of no The computation of which Nine or Twelve months is to be made from the day of the Entry of the Goods Inwards whether by sight or perfect Warrant to the day of the shipping them on board Outward and not the date of the Certificate And then he is together with the Cheque of the same Port to make a Certificate under their Hands that such Goods were entred and paid Custom and all other Duties upon Importation thereof In which Certificate is to be mentioned and expressed the time when the same were Imported by whom the Quantity and Quality of the said Goods in words at length and not in figures Upon the said Certificate the Merchant or some for him that can depose the same is to make Oath that the Goods which he intendeth to Export are the same mentioned in the Certificate and for which the full Subsidy and other Duties due upon the Importation were paid as also whether the said Goods have been contracted for or sold and to whom and for whose account the same are to be shipped and exported But if upon such examination and enquiry as he shall think fit to make upon Oath in this matter it shall appear unto him that such Goods have been fold unto or in the possession of any Shop-keeper or Retailor of the same Commodity or that the Property Form or Nature of such Commodity hath in any wise been altered mingled amended or confounded then he is to forbear proceeding any further in respect that in all and every such case there is no half-Subsidy to be repaid but the Merchant is to pay his Custom Outwards unless in case of Goods to be Exported by the Importer thereof by free Cocquet according to the seventh Article annexed to the Book of Rates But where the repayment of the half-Subsidy shall truly and really appear to be due and of right belonging according to the several circumstances before-mentioned Then and there the Collector shall go on to make out unto the Merchant a Cetrificate Cocquet and Debenter in manner and form following In the Rosemary-tree of Leith Anthony Ball Mr. for Maligo David Cuningham Ind. Five Bails containing twenty hundred Els Net Linnen The Subsidy Inward for twenty hundred Ells Net Linnen was paid by David Cuningham the eight and twentieth day of September last past Certificate Written the _____ of December 1655. A. B. Collector C. D. Cheque Juravit David Cuningham or E. F. his Servant The Goods above mentioned in this Certificate to be shipped out are the same which paid Customs inwards and are to be transported and sent beyond the Seas for the proper accompt of the said David Cuningham without any pre-contract for the same Form of the Cocquet KNow ye That David Cuningham Ind. for five Bails 〈◊〉 Cocques twenty hundred Ells of Linnen Cloath Net late in this Port unladen and now to be shipped in the Rosemary-tree of Leith Anthony Ball Master for Maligo paid all Duties at the first Discharge the eight and twentieth day of September last past Dated the _____ of _____ 1655. Form of the Debentur LEITH DAvid Cuningham did Enter with us the _____ day of _____ 1655. in the Rosemary-tree of Leith Debentur Anthony Ball Master for Maligo five Bails containing twenty hundred Ells of Linnen Cloath Net the Subsiay whereof was paid Inwards by the said David Cuningham Ind. the _____ day of _____ 1655. last past as doth appear by the Certificate thereof And for farther manifestation of his just dealing herein he hath also taken Oath before Vs Custom-house Leith the _____ day of _____ 1655. A. B. Collector C. D. Cheque Upon which Debenter afterward the Searcher or Waiter that shipped off the said Goods is to indorse or certifie the time when and the name of the Ship in which they were