[1661/1/332]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our sovereign lord, with advice and consent of his estates of parliament, ratifies, approves and confirms a gift granted by his majesty upon 10 December 1660, to be passed under the great seal, whereby his majesty ratified and approved an agreement made amongst the inhabitants of the burgh of Edinburgh concerning an imposition to be put upon wine, beer and ale sold, vended or spent within the bounds or privileges of the said incorporation, and whereby the vintners and brewers did condescend that 2s Scots should be imposed upon every Scots pint of French wine, 4s Scots upon every pint of Spanish or Rhenish wines, and 4d Scots upon every pint of ale or beer, for and toward the relief of the debts owing by the town of Edinburgh, to endure for the time and space after-mentioned, and for that effect his majesty gave, granted and made over to the provost, bailies, council and community of the said burgh of Edinburgh the foresaid sum of 2s Scots upon each pint of French wine and 4s Scots upon each pint of Spanish or Rhenish wines, and 4d Scots of every pint of ale or beer brewed, vended or spent within the said city and territories after-specified belonging thereto, namely, Leith, Canongate, Portsburgh and all other parts and pendicles within the liberties and privileges thereof, to be paid by the brewers and bringers in of the same, and that to be employed only for payment of such principal sums and annualrents as were contracted before 1 September 1650, by bonds subscribed by the provost, bailies, dean of guild, treasurer and common clerk for the time being of the said city, and in no way to be employed to any other use whatsoever, and the said imposition to endure for the whole time and space of eleven years next to come, providing always that the free monies of the said imposition (deducing charges) shall be employed in the first place towards the payment of annualrent equally and proportionably, and in the next place towards the payment of the principal sums themselves, with regard to the priority of the debt and the poverty and extreme want of the parties' creditors respectively, with power to the said provost, bailies, council and community of the said burgh of Edinburgh for the time to make acts, statutes and rules for collecting of the said imposition. And for the better gathering in thereof, his majesty did nominate and appoint Sir William Thomson, common clerk of the said burgh of Edinburgh, and failing of him by decease any other whom the provost, bailies and council of the burgh for the time shall appoint, to be general receiver and treasurer of the said imposition, with power to them, by advice of the said town council, to nominate and appoint under-receivers and clerks one or more in the said matter, for whom they are to be answerable, declaring that it shall be in the said town council's power and discretion to appoint fees and salaries to the said collector, receivers, clerks and other officers foresaid, the said general receiver being always obliged to do diligence and to make account and reckoning of his receipts or disbursements yearly, or more often if he be required by the said magistrates and town council of Edinburgh for the time, as in the said gift at more length is contained, together with an act of the town council of Edinburgh bearing date 28 December 1660, whereby the imposition above-written is restricted in manner following, to wit, to 2d upon each pint of ale and beer brewed, vended and sold within the city of Edinburgh, Canongate, Leith, Portsburgh and pertinents of the same, and to 2s upon each pint of French wine, and to 4s upon each pint of Spanish and Rhenish wines, whereby it is declared and ordained that each boll of malt brewed within the city of Edinburgh, Leith, Canongate, Portsburgh and parts and pendicles thereof, shall pay 2 merks Scots money which, being paid, nothing to be exacted for the ale, and that each twenty gallons of ale brought in to the town out of landward should likewise pay 2 merks Scots in satisfaction of the 2d upon the pint, as the said act likewise more fully bears, in the whole heads, clauses and conditions thereof, as the foresaid imposition is restricted by the act of town council above-written. Likewise his majesty, with advice of his said estates of parliament, by this act, restricts the said imposition as to ale and beer to 2d Scots upon each pint thereof, and ordains the said gift and this present confirmation thereof upon the restriction above-written, to be as valid and sufficient as if the same gift had been granted by his majesty, with advice of his estates of parliament, and as if the same, with the foresaid act of the town council of Edinburgh, were herein word for word engrossed, and with express power and warrant to the magistrates of the said burgh of Edinburgh, present and to come, by their own authority, to put the said gift and grant to due execution within their own liberties and jurisdiction.