Document: Ordinance for the more effectual collection of duties on exported peltries

The director general and council of New Netherland, to all those who see or hear this read, greetings.

Let it be known that they having experienced the great frauds and smuggling which have for a long time past been committed with regard to the duties on peltries, and imposts heretofore placed on the consumption of wine and beer which are exported, are resolved to publicly let them to the highest bidder in the middle of March, except the duties of the customs and the 8 per cent on the peltries which are sent direct by the return ships to the fatherland. In order to act with more certainty and the better to prevent all fraud and smuggling, the director general and council hereby warn and order all skippers, boatmen, traders and merchants, both inhabitants and strangers, not to embark, transport, carry or remove from this time forth, with yachts, boats, carts, wagons or in any other manner any beavers, otters, bearskins or other peltries, unless such peltries be first regularly entered with the company's commissary, each in his district, and an invoice under his signature of the full quantity thereof, by whom shipped or sent and to whom consigned, be brought to the fiscal, on pain of forfeiting the concealed peltries and double the value thereof, whether the skipper or owner even brings them with him for his own use or as freight for others: hereby not only warning all and every one against loss but also, in addition commanding their fiscal, commissary, and other officers strictly to execute this law after the publication and posting thereof, duly to inspect all departing and arriving vessels, boats, carts, or wagons and to proceed against the smugglers as the case may require.

Thus done, enacted and resumed the 27th of January 1656.[1]