Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/411

 May, 1666, eighteen hailing from this city, and thirteen from other ports departed from the Colony. In 1667, in addition to several Dutch men-of-war which had made their way into James River, there were anchored in that stream nine merchantmen from Bristol, two from London, and seven from other river or seaboard towns in the mother country. The number of English and Irish vessels, annually engaged in transporting tobacco from Virginia to England and Ireland, was eighty on the average. In some years this number increased, and in others fell off. Thus, in 1689, it is probable that not more than thirty-nine ships sailed from England to Virginia and Maryland together.

In 1662, a petition signed by persons who were interested, as planters, merchants, shipowners, or masters, in the tobacco crops of Virginia and Maryland, was offered to the King for the purpose of forcing those in control of the vessels engaged in this trade to leave the two Colonies only in the months of May, June, July, and August. This petition was denied. A few years later it was brought forward again, and again refused on the ground that the proposed regulation would be a source of great inconvenience to the mass of planters, and would be injurious to the interests of the customs. When, however, war broke out between England and Holland in 1666,