Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/266

 Company was still more solicitous that the culture of the silk-worm should be introduced into Virginia. There was an essay in this culture during the few years Smith resided in the Colony, which he asserted was only prevented from being successful by the sickness of the master workman, in consequence of which no precautions were taken to protect the worms from the rats. Reference has already been made to the importation of silk-worms in the time of Dale, which, as the result quite probably of the destructive course pursued during the administration of Argoll, ended in failure. The King was especially interested in the production of silk in Virginia. About 1607 a large number of weavers and throwsters from the continent had settled at Spitalfields and Morefields near London, with a view to establishing the silk industry in England, and the English Government was very anxious to extend them in their trade all the encouragement in its power. It would have been an advantage of the highest importance to them had they been able to secure their raw material relieved of the large profit obtained by foreigners in furnishing it; and it was also very desirable that there should be no interruption in the course of receiving their supply, a condition which could not be controlled when the producers of the raw material were foreign nations. In 1608, the first mulberry tree was planted in England, and King James himself entered actively into the cultivation of the silk-worm. The discovery of the mulberry in Virginia in such great numbers excited from the beginning the very reasonable hope that the Colony would in time produce large quantities of raw silk. At the first session of the House of Burgesses in 1619, the members, acting upon the instructions of the Company, passed a law that every man should