Translation
Ordinance imposing a new duty on wines and strong liquors
[ The director-general and council having considered the
low state of the treasury arising from the great expenses and changes which the
honorable Company has to defray here, exclusive of the monthly pay and board of
its servants, ] for the civil, ecclesiastical and military
administrations which have daily increased because of the growth of the population,
the director-general and council having, after previous remonstrance and
communication made long before this to the commonalty of this city, deliberated on
what supplementary means may be considered the least burdensome and injurious to the
inhabitants, have found no better, fitter nor easier expedient than the imposition of
some tax on the wine, brandy and spirits which can best be spared yet are consumed in
this country, at a great [ advance ] both by
buyers and sellers by the large and small measure; therefore, the director-general
and council have deemed it proper and necessary to tax wine, brandy and spirits as
follows, namely: all wines, brandies and spirits which from this day forward are laid
in and retailed by the tavernkeeper, and laid in, consumed or exported from this
place elsewhere by any other person, whether officer, inhabitant, or stranger, shall
pay, in addition to the ordinary excise paid thereon heretofore: 8 guilders on a
hogshead of French wine; 4 guilders on an anker of Spanish wine, brandy and distilled
spirits - larger and smaller casks and measures calculated in proposition.[1] In order to prevent all
frauds, connivance and smuggling, the merchants and factors shall be notified and
told by the fiscal to regulate themselves according to the tenor hereof and to
furnish no wine, brandy or spirits to any person before and until the same be duly
entered and the aforesaid import paid thereon, or in default thereof the aforesaid
impost shall be levied on them. Done at New Amsterdam in New Netherland, 26 March
1653.