The second section then proceeded to emphasize the chief distinction between the apprentice-trained apothecary-surgeons and the university-educated physicians by allowing the latter to charge twice as much for their services as the former could. If the apothecaries and surgeons felt—as well they might have—that the difference in fees was an insult to them, it did not last long. The law was not renewed at the following session of the Assembly; perhaps its backers, the physicians, had seen their patients flock to the lower-priced practicers. Although Virginia was the only colony to set medical fees by law, the practice of legislative price fixing in other areas of the economy was as common in colonial America as it was in England. In Virginia, to be specific, not only prices and quantities but in some cases even qualities of goods and services offered to the public by tavernkeepers, shoemakers, millers, and ferrymen were regulated by law. The economic philosophy and terminology of _laissez faire_ were among the alien isms imported after 1776. During the colonial years, government rarely hesitated to act in the economic field where the need was felt. From this particular Virginia law of 1736 it would appear that some if not all medical charges had gotten well out of line—the correct line, of course, being what the people and their elected representatives thought was reasonable: II. BE it therefore enacted, ... That from and after the passing of this act, no practicer in phisic, in any action or suit whatsoever, hereafter to be commenced in any court of record in this colony, shall recover, for visiting any sick person, more than the rates hereafter mentioned: that is to say, Surgeons and apothecaries, who have served an apprenticeship to those trades, shall be allowed, £ s d For every visit, and prescription, in town, or within 00 5 00 five miles For every mile, above five, and under ten 00 1 00 For a visit, of ten miles 00 10 00 And for every mile, above ten 00 00 06 With an allowance for all ferriages in their journeys. To Surgeons, For a simple fracture, and the cure thereof 02 00 00 For a compound fracture, and the cure thereof 04 00 00 But those persons who have studied phisic in any university, and taken any degree therein, shall be allowed, For every visit, and prescription, in any town, or within 00 10 00 five miles If above five miles, for every mile more, under ten 00 1 00 For a visit, if not above ten miles 1 00 00 And for every mile, above ten 00 1 00 With an allowance of ferriages, as before.