[678] An account of this book may be found in Anecdotes secr. sur
divers sujets de littérat. 1734, p. 573, and in the preface to Etat de
la France, de M. de Boulainvilliers, fol. p. 12.
[679] Inserted in the Encyclopédie, vol. xi. p. 862.
[680] Novell. coll. iv. tit. 23. cap. 2. nov. 44.
[681] Such is the idea of Stryk in Continuat. altera usus moderni
pandectarum, lib. xxii. tit. 4. p. 856.
[682] “The States of Holland having laid sufficiently heavy duties
on merchandise of every kind, and these not being equal to the
expenditure, which was daily increasing, began to think of imposing new
ones. For that purpose they issued an edict, inviting the ingenious to
turn their thoughts towards that subject, and offering a very ample
reward to whoever should invent a new tax, that might be as little
burdensome as possible, and yet productive to the republic. Some
shrewd, deep-thinking person, at length devised one on stamped paper
(called _de impost van bezegelde brieven_), to be paid for all paper
impressed with the seal of the States. The inventor proposed, that
it should be enacted by public authority, that no petitions from the
states, or from the magistrates of any city or district, or any public
bodies, should be received; that no documents should be admitted in
courts of justice; that no receipts should be legal, and that no acts
signed by notaries, secretaries, or other persons in office, and, in
short, no contracts should be valid, except such as were written upon
paper to which the seal of the States had been affixed, in the manner
above-mentioned. It was proposed, also, that this paper should be sold
by the clerks of the different towns and courts at the following rate;
paper impressed with the great seal of the States for sixpence, and
that with the less seal for twopence per sheet: for according to the
importance of the business it was necessary that the great or less seal
should be used. The States approved this plan, and it was immediately
put in execution.”--Boxhornii Disquisitiones Politic. casus 59. In this
collection there is also Boxhornii Reip. Bataviæ Brevis et Accurata
Descriptio, in the eighth chapter of which the author gives the
following account of the origin of stamped paper:--“A very ingenious
method has lately been invented of raising large sums of money for the
use of the republic. As there are many rich people who have entrusted
a considerable share of their property to the public treasury, the
interest of which they receive annually on giving receipts; as many
law-suits are carried on which are generally entered into by the
wealthy, and which cannot be brought to a conclusion until a variety
of instruments, as they are called, have been executed on each side;
and as, on account of the flourishing state of trade, many contracts
are made, which, for the sake of security, must be mutually signed, the
States thought proper to enact by a public edict, that no receipts,
law-papers, contracts, or instruments of the like kind, should be legal
or valid, unless written on paper impressed with the great or small
seal of the States. A price was also fixed on the paper, to be paid
by those who had occasion for it; so that a sheet which before could
be purchased for a half-penny, was raised to several pence; and it is
incredible how great a revenue these sheets bring to the public, by so
many of them being used. The poor, however, and those of small fortune,
feel little of this burden, as the rich principally are concerned in
the transactions above-mentioned.”
[683] Fr. Jac. Bartholdi Diss. de Charta Signata; resp. P. Kolhart,
Franc. 1690, cap. 2, § 16, p. 36.