[PEPPER]

Reasons Humbly Offered to the Honourable House of Commons, for Relieving the Fair-Dealer in Pepper [caption title]

[London: 1714]. Broadsheet. [1]p., plus printed docket title on verso. Disbound. Small folio. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin. Minor foxing.

An early petitionary leaflet calling attention to pepper merchants defrauding British customs and requesting relief for the "Fair-Dealer." The document notes that during its time, "One thousand Bags of Pepper is Yearly Consumed in England"; a bag of pepper was 316 pounds. This is among the earliest examples of commercial lobbying literature, which first began proliferating during the major changes in British government in the mid-1710s. ESTC records four copies in the U.K. and one in the U.S., at Columbia.

Goldsmiths 5121; Hanson 1999.

Item #21186

Price: $500.00