Taxation (Rock Salt) Act 1698

II. Reasons for this Enactment.

Owners of Rock Pits taking Rock Salt thereout, to cause the same,; before Removal, to be weighed in the Presence of Officer, who is to make Return to Commissioners of Excise; and leave a Copy with Owner of. Pit, to be a Charge upon him; Owner refusing to weigh, &c. Penalty £20

And whereas by the said former Acts or some of them It is provided that all Makers and Proprietors of Rock-Salt should make true Entries with His Majesties Officers of the Quantities of Salt by them taken out of any Pit or Pits and should have a Warrant or Ticket from some one of the Officers to carry away the same before the said Salt made or taken out of any Pit or Pits should be removed or carried from the respective Pits and that such Warrant should be given gratis unto such Maker or Proprietor upon paying or giveing Security for Payment of His Majesties Duties within Six Months after such Entry made nevertheless the Owners or Proprietors of Rock-Salt having by the said Acts or some of them Liberty to remove their Rock-Salt into his or their own Warehouses or other Places for securing thereof for Conveniency of selling or shipping [X1 off] the same after due Entry made and a Warrant or Ticket taken for the same from the Officer next to such Salt-Pits and to pay and secure the Duty when the said Rock Salt shall be sold and delivered It is found by experience that there is not a sufficient Charge made and kept upon the said Owners or Proprietors for all the Rock Salt or Salt-Rock taken out of his or their Pit or Pits but between the Pits and the said Storehouses (which are in many places contrived so as to be remote from the Pits) or elce before the selling and delivery of the said Rock Salt great Quantities thereof are run and imbezelled and never charged to His Majesties great Damage and the Injury of such Workers as justly pay His Majesties Dues For Remedy whereof Be it futher enacted by the Authority aforesaid That every Owner or Proprietor of any such Rock Pit or Pits who after the said Fifteenth day of May One thousand six hundred ninety nine shall take any Rock Salt or Salt-Rock out of any such Pit shall before the Removall thereof cause the same to be weighed in the presence of the Officer appointed for the Duties on Salt which Officer is hereby authorized and required to attend at such Salt Pits at all reasonable Hours in the Day time to see and take an Account of all such Rock-Salt and Salt Rock so weighed and thereof to make Returne or Report in Writing under his Hand to the Commissioners of Excise or to such Person as they shall appoint to recieve the same leaving a true Copy of such [X2 Returne] in Writing under his Hand with such Proprietor and such Report or Returne shall be a Charge upon such Proprietors respectively And if any such Proprietor shall refuse to weigh any such Rock Salt and Salt-Rock in the presence of the Officer when taken out of any Pit as aforesaid or shall remove or convey or suffer to be conveyed from such Pit any such Rock Salt and Salt-Rock before the same shall have been weighed as aforesaid every such Proprietor shall forfeit and loose for every such Offence the Sume of Twenty Pounds and also double the Value of the Rock-Salt and Salt-Rock so removed as aforesaid

Editorial Information

X1 Variant reading of the text noted in The Statutes of the Realm as follows: of O. [O. refers to a collection in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge]

X2 interlined on the Roll.