sb. [med.L. quota (sc. pars ‘how great a part’), fem. of quotus, f. quot how many.]
1. The part or share which is, or ought to be, paid or contributed by one to a total sum or amount; in early use chiefly with ref. to contributions of men, money, or supplies, from a particular town, district or country. (Cf. CONTINGENT sb. 5.)
1668. Temple, Lett., Ld. Arlington, Wks. 1731, II. 165. Some certain Quota’s upon the several Parts of the Empire.
1691. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 236. If his master doe not speedily remitt the money promised, and quota of officers and engineers.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 439, ¶ 2. Newsgatherers and Intelligencers … who bring in their respective Quotas.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, Germany, II. 391. They have often balls and feasts, where every one pays their quota.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., XII. III. 378. The Papal troops were far inferior in number to the quota stipulated.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, I. vi. The host … always contributed his quota to the general fund of polished sociability.
1887. Jessopp, Arcady, i. 13. It is the village huckster who has to pay his heavy quota towards the rate.
b. Comb. as quota-bill, a Parliamentary bill passed in March, 1795, under which each county and (by a supplementary bill passed in April) each port had to supply its quota of men to the navy; so also quote-bounty, -man (see quots.).
1823. Brenton, Naval Hist. Gt. Brit., I. 49. The quota-bounty given in 1795, 1796, and 1797, we conceive to have been the most ill-advised and fatal measure ever adopted by the government for manning the fleet. Ibid., note. There were few, if any, seamen among them; and the term ‘quota-man,’ or ‘lord-mayor’s man,’ was supposed to comprise every thing that was base and contemptible among sailors.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Quota-Men, those raised for the navy … by Pitt’s quota-bill, in 1795 under bounties of from £20 to £60.
2. The part or share of a total that belongs, is given, or is due, to one.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v., Tip me my Quota, give me my Part of the Winnings, Booty, Plunder, &c.
1726. Shelvocke, Voy. round World, 227. Sometimes would not allow me a quota of the fish that was caught.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), II. I. xii. 61. They have great magazines of East-India goods, this city having its quota of that trade.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), I. Introd. If nerves are necessary to a boiling fit of rage, I must have my full quota of them.
1883. Shaw, Local Gov. Illinois, 17. Having collected the total amount, the collector disburses to each proper authority its respective quota.
Hence Quota v. trans., to impose in quotas. Also Quotaing vbl. sb.
1784. E. Gerry, in New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg. (1895), XLIX. 431. Troops to be required and quotied [sic] on the several States by Congress.
1786. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), I. 593. A convention … by which the burthen of the war might be quotaed on them, according to their respective wealth. Ibid. (1798), (1896), VII. 267. This is to avoid the quotaing. Ibid. Requeries under a quotaing law.
