OCTROI (Lat. auctoritas, authority), a term which originally meant an ordinance authorized by the sovereign, and thence came to be restrictively applied to a toll or tax in kind levied from a very early period in France, and other countries of northern Europe, on articles of food which passed the barrier or entrance of a town. The right to levy this toll was often delegated to subjects, and, in order to increase its tune:int, a device was resorted to of raising the weight of the pound in which the octroi was taken. The large pound, an ounce heavier than that iu ordinary use, was called the litre d'octroi, whence the expression pound troy. The octroi came eventually to be levied in money, and was abolished in France at the revolution. In 1708 it was re-established, under the pretext that it was required for purposes of charity, and called the octroi de bienfaisance, and it has been reorganized ill 1816, 1812, and 1851. Of the octroi duty which is at present
levied at the gates of the French towns, one-tenth goes to the national treasury. and the rest to local expenses. The octroi officers are entitled to search all carriages and hall viduals entering the gates of a town. From the oetroia of Paris government derived, a few years ago, a revenue of 56 million francs. In 1860 the Belgian government acquired popularity by abolishing the octroi.
The epithet octroye is applied by centinethal politicians to a constitution granted by a prince, in contradistinction to one which is the result of a paction between the sovereign and the representatives of the people. Any public company possessing an authorized monopoly like that held by the East India company is said to be octroye.