Definition
Forstallare is a Latin term from old English law meaning to stop on the way or to intercept goods before they reach the market. It is the verbal root of the cluster of related Latin forms — forstallarius, forstallator, forstallamentum, forstallatio — all of which describe the person, act, or offense of forestalling.
As a legal concept, forstallare refers to the practice of intercepting merchants or goods en route to a public market, buying up supplies before they could be offered openly for sale, or otherwise disrupting the ordinary course of market trade. The purpose of prohibiting such conduct was to prevent artificial scarcity and price manipulation in local markets, which were considered essential to the common welfare under medieval English economic regulation.
The term does not describe a single act in isolation but rather names the root action from which a suite of market offenses derived their legal character.
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Common Confusion
Forstallare, forstallarius, forstallator, forstallamentum, and forstallatio are closely related Latin forms that researchers will encounter used near-interchangeably in historical sources. The distinctions are grammatical, not substantive: forstallare is the verb (the act of forestalling), forstallarius and forstallator are nouns naming the person who forestalls, forstallamentum and forstallatio are abstract nouns naming the offense or the act itself. Burrill treats these as a family of terms under the same conceptual heading. Do not treat variant spellings — including Domesday's foristellarius — as references to distinct offenses.
Forstallare should also be distinguished from engrossing and regrating, which are related but technically separate market offenses. All three were often charged together in historical proceedings, but they describe different conduct: forestalling involves interception before the market; engrossing involves buying up large quantities to control supply; regrating involves reselling in the same or nearby market at a profit.
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Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter forstallare and its related forms primarily in medieval and early modern English legal records, including writs, borough customs, assize records, and statutory materials. The term anchors a body of market regulation that was active law in England from at least the Norman period through the nineteenth century, when forestalling was finally abolished as a common law offense.
The Statute of 13 Edward I (referenced by Burrill and the Registrum Originale) is the key statutory source for the formal writ of forstallamentum. Researchers consulting Reg. Orig. at folios 271b and 279b will find the standard writ forms for forestalling proceedings. Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum is the primary glossary source for the Latin terminology and is the authority Burrill relies upon for these definitions.
One navigational trap: Domesday Book uses the spelling foristellarius rather than forstallarius. These are the same office and concept. Do not treat the variant as a different term.
A second trap: because forestalling, engrossing, and regrating were routinely grouped together in statutes, indictments, and commentary, sources will often treat them as a single compound offense. A researcher looking for forstallare in an index may need to search under forestalling, and vice versa.
The offense persisted in English common law well past its medieval origins and was still technically indictable at common law into the nineteenth century, though enforcement became rare. Researchers tracing the modern law of market manipulation or anti-competitive conduct will find that forestalling is a genuine historical antecedent, even if no direct statutory lineage runs forward into modern competition law.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary English-language legal dictionary source for this term and treats it as a Latin technical term of old English law, glossing it plainly as to stop on the way or to forestall. Burrill's entry is notable for presenting the full family of related Latin forms together, which is the correct approach: the terms forstallarius, forstallator, forstallamentum, and forstallatio are all sub-entries that derive their meaning from the root verb.
Burrill cites Spelman throughout, and Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum remains the foundational scholarly authority on Norman and medieval Latin legal terminology of this kind. The Registrum Originale citations at folios 271b and 279b point to the standard writ forms used in forestalling proceedings and are the closest thing to primary statutory support visible in this dictionary entry.
Older dictionaries in the common law tradition — Cowell, Jacob, Termes de la Ley — treat forestalling in English rather than Latin but cover the same substantive ground. None of the historical dictionaries adequately address the abolition of forestalling as a common law offense, which is a significant gap for researchers working on the later history of the doctrine.
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Jurisdictional Note
Forstallare and the forestalling offense are specifically English common law concepts rooted in the regulation of English markets and boroughs. Scotland and Ireland had analogous market offenses under their own legal traditions, but the Latin terminology and the writ forms are English. Researchers working in American colonial legal history may encounter forestalling charges in early court records, but the offense never took firm statutory root in American law.
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