Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/299

 by many to retire to the Eastern Shore, of which a survey was made with that purpose in view. George Sandys, the Treasurer of the Colony, asserted that no such plan had been seriously considered,

As the spring of 1623 advanced, the high prices prevailing in the winter increased. A bushel of meal ranged from twenty to thirty shillings, which, reduced to the figures of our modern currency, amounted in purchasing value from twenty to thirty dollars; the cost of a hogs-head was about seventy pounds in English currency in the present age. The food was oatmeal, peas, and maize bread.