Legal Definitions - forestaller

A forestaller was, historically, an individual who committed the legal offense of "forestalling." This meant buying goods or provisions *before* they reached the open public market, with the intention of reselling them at a higher price. The goal was to control the supply of essential goods, create artificial scarcity, and drive up prices for consumers, which was considered an unfair and harmful practice to the public welfare.

• Imagine a wealthy merchant in medieval England who would ride out to meet farmers bringing their carts of wheat and barley to the town's weekly market. He would offer to buy their entire harvest directly from them on the road, before they even entered the town gates. Once he had purchased all the available grain, he would then sell it at the market himself, but at a significantly inflated price, knowing he controlled the entire supply.

  This merchant would be considered a forestaller because he intercepted the goods before they reached the open market, aiming to manipulate prices and profit unfairly from the community's need for food.

• Consider a coastal town where local fishermen brought their daily catch to the public dock for sale to the townspeople. A shrewd individual might approach the fishing boats as they returned from sea, offering to buy their entire haul of fresh fish before they even tied up at the pier. This individual would then be the sole seller of fish at the dock, allowing them to charge much higher prices than if the fishermen had sold directly to the public.

  In this scenario, the individual buying the fish at sea would be acting as a forestaller, preventing the natural market competition and artificially increasing the cost of a staple food.

• During a time when farmers brought their sheep and wool to a regional fair for sale, a large landowner might send agents to buy up all the sheep or raw wool from smaller farmers on the outskirts of the fairgrounds, before they could set up their stalls. By doing so, the landowner would become the primary, if not sole, supplier of wool at the fair, enabling them to dictate prices to weavers and other buyers.

  This landowner, through their agents, would be engaging in forestalling, as they were acquiring goods before they were offered in the open, competitive market to control supply and inflate prices.