The first recorded history of customs being collected in England is found in the code of laws enacted by King Ethelred in 979 A.D. The law read, “Every small vessel arriving at Billingsgate shall pay to the tax gatherer one obolus; if of greater tonnage and mast rigged, one denarius. If a ship shall arrive and anchor there, four denarii shall be paid to the tax gatherer. Vessels laden with timber shall pay one log to the tax gatherer.” In the Magna Charta is found the following: “Cap. XXX. All Merchants, if they are not openly prohibited before, shall have safe and sure Conduct to depart out of England, to come into England, to tarry in and go through England, as well by land as by water, to sell and buy, without any manner of evil tolts, by the old and rightful customs, except in time of war. xxx” The collection of customs on the North American continent was first made by the Dutch in 1651 when the governor ordered that all imports from foreign countries entering the harbor at New York should pay a duty. The method of collecting was later outlined in a document which reads as follows: Instructions for Mr. Cornelius Van Ruyven, collector of the customes in ye City of New York, by order of Colonell Francis Lovelace, governour, May 24, 1668. You or your clerk are to be daily at ye Custome House from nyne untill twelve at noone. There to receive ye customes both in and out, as the Merchants shall come and enter, ye Merchant is to make foure Bills and sign them with his hand, writing his name on them, and ye same time, when you have signed ye Warrant, or one of ye Bills, you are to demand ye Custome, either in kinde at 10 P Cent inwards or double ye vallue of its first Cost in Holland, in Beaver. And likewise outwards for Peltry you are to receive 10½ P Cent according to ye vallue in Beaver, for Tobacco one half penny for Per pound which is noe more than all Englishmen doe pay. xxx You to tell ye Merchante you are not to give credit. xxx If they do not like your propositions, you are not to pass their Bills. xxx And Lastly pray lett ye Books be kept all in English and all Factoryes and Papers, that when I have occasion to satisfy myself I may better understand them. When the city came under British rule in 1664, the system of tariffs set up by the Dutch was continued. Almost one hundred years before the Boston Tea Party and the beginning of the Revolution, there was an uprising in New York against the British collection of customs. Religion played a role in this rebellion, which was touched off when England’s Catholic King James II was succeeded by the Protestant William of Orange and his wife Mary.