ENGROSSING (OF. engrossir, from ML. in qrossarc, to engross, from Lat. in, in grossus, large). The crime of buying up standing corn or victuals at wholesale (Fr. en pros) in order to sell them again at retail (known as regrating) in the same market at an enhanced price. It cor responds closely to the modern practice of making a 'corner' in one of the necessaries of life. These practices were regarded as criminal in most coun tries before the laws by which trade is regulated were properly understood. In England they were forbidden by various statutes, from the time of Edward VI. to that of Queen Anne. It was found, however, that engrossing was not only a statutory, hut a common-law offense. and a pros ecution for it in the latter character actually took place in the nineteenth century. The act 7 and 8 Viet., c. 24, for abolishing the offenses of fore stalling, regrating,, and engrossing was conse quently passed. Besides declaring that the sev eral offenses of badgering, engrossing, forestall ing, and regrating be utterly taken away and abolished, and that no information or prosecution shall lie either at common law or by virtue of any statute, either in England, Scotland, or Ire land, this statute also repeals a host of earlier enactments in restraint of trade, which had been omitted in the statute in the time of George above referred to. In the United States much
litigation has arisen in recent years respecting the legality of combinations of engross ing and monopolizing the necessaries of life. These will be considered in the articles on COMBINATIONS ; MONOPOLY ; RESTRAINT OF TRADE; anal TRUSTS. See also CONTRACT; FORESTALLING; REGRATING. Consult the commentaries of Black stone, Stephen, and Kent. and the authorities re ferred to under CRIMINAL LAW and POLITICAL ECONOMY.
The term also denotes the writing of a statute or other legal instrument en pros, or in a fair, round hand. It is, in the United States, often applied to the final and official draught of a statute as it is presented to the President or to a governor for his signature.