BUTLERAGE AND PRISAGE  . In

England there was an ancient right of the crown to purveyance or pre-emption, i.e. the right of buying up provisions and other necessities for the royal household, at a valuation, even without the consent of the owner . Out of this right originated probably that of taking customs, in return for the protection and maintenance of the ports and harbours . One such customs due was that of " prisage," the right of taking one tun of wine from every ship importing from ten to twenty tuns, and two tuns from every ship importing more than twenty tuns . This right of prisage was commuted, by a charter of Edward I . (1302), into a duty of two shillings on every tun imported by merchant strangers, and termed " butler-age," because paid to the king's butler . Butlerage ceased to be levied in 1809, by the Customs Consolidation Act of that year .