vides that no one shall buy wood or coal
except such as will burn or consume the same, "Forasmuche as by the
gredye appetite and coveteousnes of divers persons, Fuell Coles and
Woodd runethe many times throughe foure or fyve severall handes or
moe before it comethe to thandes of them that for their necessite doo
burne ... the same"--under penalty of treble value.

In 1551 is the last elaborate act against regrators, forestallers, and
engrossers, made perpetual by 13 Elizabeth, and only repealed in 1772.
It recognizes all previous laws against them, but recites that they
have not had good effect, and therefore in the first section gives a
precise definition. _Forestalling_--the buying of victuals or other
merchandise on their way to a market or port, or contracting to buy
the same before they arrive at such market or city, or making any
motion for the enhancing of the price thereof, or to prevent the
supply, that is, to induce any person coming to the market, etc., to
stay away. _Regrating_ is narrowed to victuals, alive or dead, and to
the reselling them at the fair or market where they were bought or
within four miles thereof; and _engrossing_ is given a definition very
similar to our "buying of futures." That is to say, it is the buying
or contracting to buy any corn growing in the fields or any other
victuals within the Realm of England with intent to sell the same
again. The penalty for all such offences is two months' imprisonment
and forfeiture of the value of the goods, but for a third offence the
person suffers forfeiture and may be imprisoned. There is an important
recognition of modern political economy made in the proviso that
persons may engross corn, etc., when it sells at or below a certain
price, not, however, forestalling it.

In 1554 is a statute for the relief of weavers, prohibiting "the
engrossing of looms," thus anticipating one of the principal doctrines
of Lassalle. In the same year, 1st of Philip and Mary, is a statute
prohibiting countrymen from retailing goods in cities, boroughs, or
market towns, but selling by wholesale is allowed, and they may sell
if free of a corporation; and so cloth may be retailed by the
maker, and the statute only applies to cloth and grocery wares, not
apparently to food.

(1562) From the reign of Elizabeth dates the great Poor Law, enacted
and re-enacted in 1562, 1572, and finally in 1601, recognizing fully
the duty of the parishes to support their poor, but provi