Document: Ordinance obliging the inhabitants of Fort Orange and Beverwyck to take out a permit when removing and laying in wines and beer

The director-general and high council of New Netherland, to all who see or hear this read, greetings. Let it be known:Whereas we have been informed and told, on behalf of the farmers of the wine and beer excise, that some inhabitants, residing within as well as outside the jurisdiction of Fort Orange and the village of Beverwyck, lay in, transport and store wines and beers without receiving from or showing to the farmer or his collector a certificate, from which much fraud and smuggling must follow; therefore, in order to prevent this, we hereby ordain and order that no one, regardless of his capacity, shall transport, store, remove or lay in any wines, brandies, liquors or [ strong beers ] before and until he receives from or shows to the farmer, collector, or someone else appointed thereto, an excise certificate, upon which is indicated whether such wines, liquors and beers are being fetched, transported, laid in or stored for a tapster or for a citizen, on pain of forfeiting such wines, liquors or beers and five times the value thereof. Done at New Amsterdam, 18 November 1654; and was signed: P. Stuyvesant, Nicasius de Sille, La Montangne.