Definition
A historical customs duty levied in the City of London on salt brought into the port. The duty, known by its specific name "granage," was payable to the Lord Mayor and other civic authorities and amounted to one-twentieth of the salt imported. It was a toll of commercial regulation rather than a general tax, tied specifically to the port of London and the salt trade passing through it.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in historical legal sources and is essentially defunct as an operative legal concept. Researchers are most likely to encounter it when working with materials on medieval and early modern English commercial regulation, City of London municipal authority, or the history of commodity duties. Several navigational points are worth noting.
First, the operative term is "granage," not "salt duty in London" — the latter is a descriptive label used by legal dictionary compilers, while granage is the term that will appear in primary historical sources, civic records, and early treatises. A researcher looking for primary materials should search under granage, not the descriptive phrase.
Second, granage belongs to a family of port and market tolls historically administered by the City of London under its special chartered privileges. Understanding it requires familiarity with the broader framework of London's civic jurisdiction over trade, which was distinct from the Crown's customs regime. Conflating granage with royal customs duties would be an error — it was a municipal exaction, not a parliamentary or prerogative tax.
Third, Wharton's Law Lexicon is cited as the source behind both Black's editions on this point. Researchers relying on Black's should be aware they are receiving a secondhand summary of Wharton's entry, not an independent analysis. The Wharton entry itself may contain more detail on the legal basis and historical enforcement of the duty.
Fourth, the fraction — one-twentieth — is a specific and unusual rate. Researchers working on comparative commodity duty history or on the economics of the medieval salt trade may find that fraction useful as a concrete data point, but should verify it against civic records rather than relying solely on dictionary authority.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's editions are nearly identical in their treatment, differing only in minor typographical presentation. Neither adds substantive analysis beyond the single-sentence description sourced to Wharton. This uniformity signals that Black's was not drawing on independent research but reproducing Wharton verbatim or near-verbatim across editions — a common practice for obscure historical terms of limited contemporary relevance.
Neither edition dates the duty, describes its origin, identifies the legislation or charter granting authority to collect it, or explains when it fell into disuse. The phrase "formerly payable" confirms both editions understood it as a historical curiosity rather than a living legal obligation by their time of publication.
Wharton's Law Lexicon, the attributed source, is a British reference work and would be the appropriate next step for a researcher seeking deeper treatment within the dictionary tradition. English legal histories dealing with the City of London's commercial privileges — including works on the ancient customs of the port — would be more authoritative than any dictionary source for understanding granage in context.
Jurisdictional Note
This duty was specific to the City of London and has no counterpart in other common law jurisdictions. It is of purely English legal-historical relevance and does not appear in American, Scottish, or other Commonwealth legal traditions.