If a sheriff does not answer for money collected for the Exchequer, he shall forfeit treble damages to the aggrieved person, double the sum missing to the aggrieved person, 100 pounds to the king, and 100 pounds to the party who sues. If a sheriff take a fee for levying or collecting money due to the king (except 4d. for an acquittance) or take a sum for not levying money due, he is guilty of extortion, injustice, and oppression and shall forfeit treble damages and costs to the aggrieved person, and double the sum extorted to the aggrieved person. A sheriff may not levy more than 12d. for every 20s. of yearly income of any manor for up to 100 pounds of income, and 6d. for value over 100 pounds.
No one may cut pine trees that are fit for masts of ship in New England without license by the Queen or forfeit 100 pounds. Later, pine trees on private property were excluded.
Citizens of Great Britain may sue colonial debtors by oath before British magistrates and a debtor's colonial lands and houses and negroes may be used to satisfy his debts.
Anyone pretending to act under a charter and taking subscriptions in Great Britain or the colonies must forfeit treble damages.
No hats, including beaver hats, may be exported from any colony even to another colony because this has hurt British hat manufacture. The penalty is 500 pounds. No one in the colonies except present hatmakers who are householders and journeymen may make hats unless they serve a seven year apprenticeship. No hatmaker in the colonies may have more than two apprentices at once.
Whaling ships near Greenland were prohibited from returning until their hulls were full. Vessels built or fitted out in America may engage in whaling.
Pig iron from the colonies may be imported free, but there may be no mill for slitting or rolling iron and no plateing-forge or other engine to work with a tilt hammer and no furnace for making steel erected or used in the colonies or forfeit 200 pounds.
No paper bills of credit may be used in New England because such have depreciated.
William Blackstone lectured on law at Oxford University in 1753. As a result, the first professorship of English law was established. His lectures were published in 1769 as the "Commentaries on the Laws of England". They greatly influenced the American colonists and were the basis of legal education in England and America for years. They were comprehensive and covered real property, crime and punishment, court procedure, contract, corporations, and commercial law. He wrote "The Great Charter and Charter of the Forest" in 1759.
- Judicial Procedure -