Definition
Request notes are documents used in English excise law by persons subject to excise regulation. A request note is a formal written request submitted to excise authorities seeking permission — typically in the form of a permit — to remove excisable goods or articles from one location to another. The notes functioned as an administrative checkpoint within the excise system, ensuring that dutiable goods could be tracked and that the movement of such goods did not circumvent tax collection.
The term is plural by convention because the regulatory practice involved the submission of such notes as a routine, recurring administrative act rather than a singular instrument.
Why It Matters in Research
Request notes are a narrow, jurisdiction-specific term rooted in English excise administration. Researchers working in English legal history, revenue law, or the history of customs and excise will encounter the term in statutory materials, administrative records, and treatises from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — the peak period of excise regulation in England.
Several navigational points deserve attention:
First, the term is exclusively English in its legal context. American legal sources do not use "request notes" as a term of art, and researchers consulting American digests or encyclopedias will find no domestic equivalent. The nearest American analog would be permits or removal certificates under federal and state excise or alcohol beverage control frameworks, but these are distinct instruments with distinct regulatory histories.
Second, Bouvier's cross-reference to "Courts of Requests" under the REQUESTS entry is a separate concept entirely. Courts of Requests were small-claims-style tribunals, unrelated to the excise permit function of request notes. Researchers encountering "requests" as a standalone heading in historical sources should verify which sense is intended before drawing connections.
Third, because the excise system that generated request notes was largely dismantled or absorbed into modernized revenue administration over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the term is primarily of historical rather than current practical significance. Researchers encountering it in archival or primary source contexts should treat it as a window into the administrative mechanics of pre-modern English revenue law.
Fourth, the connection between request notes and negotiable instruments or commercial paper (notes in the financial sense) is superficial and etymological only. Request notes are not promissory instruments, not negotiable, and carry no monetary obligation between parties. The shared word "note" can mislead researchers browsing across categories.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary provides the core definition: request notes are instruments used by persons amenable to excise laws to obtain permits for removing excisable goods from one place to another. Bouvier's treatment is brief, framing the term as an English law concept without elaborating on the procedural mechanics or the statutory framework that generated the requirement.
Historical sources beyond Bouvier's shed limited additional light in standard legal dictionary form. The depth of the subject lies in English excise statutes and administrative practice rather than in legal dictionary treatment, which consistently treats request notes as a secondary or incidental entry. This is consistent with the term's function: it was a practical instrument of regulatory compliance, not a concept requiring sustained doctrinal analysis.
What historical dictionaries collectively omit is any explanation of the underlying statutory architecture — the excise acts that defined who was "amenable" to the excise laws and what categories of goods required a permit for removal. Researchers needing that context must turn to English statutory sources directly rather than relying on dictionary definitions.
Jurisdictional Note
Request notes as a legal term of art are specific to English excise law. The concept does not transfer to American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions as a recognized term. Researchers working in comparative revenue law should note that analogous permit and removal documentation requirements exist across jurisdictions under different terminology.