We are now approaching the end of our task, for the legislation after James I, with the exception of a few great acts, such as the Statute of Frauds and the Habeas Corpus Act, hardly concerns us as not being part of our inherited common law. The reigns of Elizabeth and James are to us principally notable for the increase of the feeling against monopolies, ending in the great Statute of James I. While we still find restrictions upon trade in market towns or in the city of London, they always appear as local restrictions and are usually soon repealed. The prejudice against regrating, that is to say, middlemen, continues, as is shown in a Statute of Edward VI, providing that no one shall buy butter or cheese unless to sell the same only by retail in open shop. That is to say, there must be no middleman between the producer and the retailer, and a definition of the word "retail" is given. In 1552, the 7th of Edward VI is a celebrated statute called the Assize of Fuel, applied to the city of London, notable because it forbids middlemen and provides that no one shall buy wood or coal except such as will burn or consume the same, "Forasmuche as by the gredye appetite and coveteousnes of divers persons, Fuell Coles and Woodd runethe many times throughe foure or fyve severall handes or moe before it comethe to thandes of them that for their necessite doo burne ... the same"--under penalty of treble value. In 1551 is the last elaborate act against regrators, forestallers, and engrossers, made perpetual by 13 Elizabeth, and only repealed in 1772. It recognizes all previous laws against them, but recites that they have not had good effect, and therefore in the first section gives a precise definition. _Forestalling_--the buying of victuals or other merchandise on their way to a market or port, or contracting to buy the same before they arrive at such market or city, or making any motion for the enhancing of the price thereof, or to prevent the supply, that is, to induce any person coming to the market, etc., to stay away. _Regrating_ is narrowed to victuals, alive or dead, and to the reselling them at the fair or market where they were bought or within four miles thereof; and _engrossing_ is given a definition very similar to our "buying of futures." That is to say, it is the buying or contracting to buy any corn growing in the fields or any other victuals within the Realm of England with intent to sell the same again. The penalty for all such offences is two months' imprisonment and forfeiture of the value of the goods, but for a third offence the person suffers forfeiture and may be imprisoned. There is an important recognition of modern political economy made in the proviso that persons may engross corn, etc., when it sells at or below a certain price, not, however, forestalling it.