Reply #20: Government, Law and the Economy [View All]

[ozymandius]

From the book "A History of American Law":

The settlements depended on roads, ferries, bridges and gristmills for transport, communication and basic food supply. These enterprises were therefore the public's concern, though private enterprise built them and ran them.

.....

The miller's rate of toll was regulated throughout the colonial period. In New Hampshire, for example, an act of 1718 set up the "Toll for grinding All Sorts of Corn" at "one Sixteenth part, and no more,"except for Indian Corn, for which the mill shall take One Twelfth." Government also regulated markets, road building and the quality of essential commodities. - Page 76

From England, the colonies copied laws about public markets. These laws told where and when important products could be sold. A scattered market is difficult to administer. When all sellers of wood or hay or grain meet at one place and time, regulation can be cheap and effective." - Page 77

Our ideas of quality control (for the public benefit) and regulation of markets and incomes were derived from localized planning around the provision of essential public services as defined by colonial America and as an extension of laws of crown and empire.