Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/378

 the establishment of commercial relations between Virginia and New Amsterdam were met with the reply, that no step could be taken by the former until a license had been obtained from the Council of State; and in the following year, two English merchants are found petitioning the English government for permission to sail from Holland to Virginia and Antigua. Another English merchant who was a resident of Amsterdam, applies for a license to transport a cargo from that city to the plantations on the James and York. In 1653, the ship Leopoldus, of Dunkirk, a Spanish Fleming, was seized in the Colony and confiscated, on the ground that its, master had violated the Act of Navigation. It is a fact of some significance, that the Governor was charged with having gone on board of this vessel and afterwards furnished her with supplies, an accusation which he warmly denied.

After the close of hostilities, a renewed assumption by the Virginians of the right of free trade would seem to be shown by the petition that the owners of the Charles offered to Cromwell in January, 1655, in which a commission was sought, authorizing them in the person of their shipmaster to surprise the different vessels occupied contrary to the ordinance of October 3, 1650, in carrying the commodities of the Colony to foreign countries. This