1476 G. Cely Let. Apr. in Cely Lett. (1975) 249 Ffor primage of heuery j pake ij d.

1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII c. 14 A piece of flemmishe mony called an Englyshe for lodemanage and for primage of euery fardell of wollen clothe.

1598 W. Phillip tr. J. H. van Linschoten Disc. Voy. E. & W. Indies i. iii. 4/2 The Master and the Pilot doe receaue before hand, each man twenty foure millreyes,..as also primage, & certaine tunnes fraught.

1661 A. Marvell Let. 15 June in Poems & Lett. (1971) II. 29 M^r Porter..assures me he hath giuen order to stop the Primage Loadage [etc.].

1755 N. Magens Ess. Insurances I. 73 It is usual at some Places to pay 5 per Cent calculated on the Freight, and 5 per Cent more for Primage to the Captain.

1771 J. Norton Let. 21 Feb. (1968) 153 George Goosley being desirous of having so fine a Ship & being entitled to the whole Lumber & primage out, consented to give the other £50 himself.

1820 Times 25 May 3/2 Quebec timber..is subject to at least 2l. 10s. per load for freight and primage.

1887 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 50 685 These rates..will be augmented by 5 per cent. primage, and there is in addition to be included the insurance.

1909 Englishwoman Apr. 229 The railway rate from Belfast to Ballintra, County Donegal, was given at 42s. 6d. a ton,..and the freight to Japan at only 45s. plus 10 per cent. primage.

1941 B. Humphries Boston looks Seaward vi. 164 After 1880,..captains were..generally hired by the schooner operators at $45 or $50 a month, plus primage, usually five percent of the gross return from a trip.

1992 Jrnl. Econ. Hist. 52 572 The ¾ pence plus 5 percent primage to ship a pound of cotton from New Orleans to Liverpool..[was] typical of the 1830s.

1606 Mariners' Charter in J. Brand Hist. & Antiq. Newcastle (1789) II. 700 An ancient duetie heretofore..paid to the said C. M. B. and S. [= Companie, Misterie, Brotherhood, and Society of the Trinitie House of Newcastle upon Tyne], called Primage, that is to say, 2d. of everie tunn.

1789 J. Brand Hist. & Antiq. Newcastle II. 714 Primage is still paid to this society [of Pilots] at two-pence per ton.

1848 Times 7 Aug. 7/5 The right of the Trinity House corporation to certain ‘petty dues and customs’ in the shape of primage, on goods, wares, and merchandise, imported from foreign parts into the port of Newcastle-on-Tyne.

1892 Hist., Topogr. & Directory E. Yorks. 819 The latter monarch [sc. Charles II] constituted it a Corporation,..‘by the name of the Guild or brotherhood of masters and pilots-seamen of the Trinity House, of Kingston upon Hull’... They were to have power to..levy and receive primage.

1950 Eng. Hist. Rev. 65 466 Some masters and mariners of vessels in the Thames refused to pay over their primage money to the Trinity gild.

1888 Times 31 May 5/7 It is proposed to levy a special primage of 1 per cent. on all imports [to New Zealand] for two years, the proceeds being devoted to meeting the unfunded deficit of last year.

1893 Times 20 July 5/2 It was the intention of the Government [of Victoria, Australia] to charge a primage rate of 3 per cent. on all foreign articles imported which did not..pay ad valorem duties amounting to a minimum of 25 per cent.

1934 H. Heaton Brit. Way to Recovery 101 Two years have sufficed to show the possibilities and difficulties of bilateral reciprocity and retaliation in a period when..all manner of additional surtaxes, primage duties, and so forth may be piled on top of the original duty.

1977 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 1 Apr. 8/9 (advt.) Primage, at rates of up to 10%, is levied on some imports in addition to normal protective duties.

2001 Australian (Nexis) 28 May 12 The flood of imports should be controlled and value added industries encouraged through foreign exchange control and/or a primage on all imports.

1881 J. Hill in Metal World 8 Oct. 342 Experience shows that steam always carries a certain percentage of water in suspension as it rises from the body of water of which it is formed... The water so suspended in the steam is known as water entrained or as primage.

1892 Manufacturer & Builder Jan. 12/1 A separator must..provide ample facilities for separating the particles of entrained water from the steam and ample capacity for moderate primage.

1984 P. Godin in B. N. Kursunoglu et al. Global Energy Assessment & Policy 372 Simulation models of cooling towers also allow the behavior of plumes in the atmosphere to be estimated as well as blowdowns of primage drops.