Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/419

 concurrence of the King, declared that for a period of five years these commodities should be admitted into England without being subject to the ordinary duties. To extend such a privilege as this, at a time when tobacco had fallen so low in price that it would hardly bear the charge of freight alone, would appear to show the grossest indifference to the welfare of the colonists but for the fact that the English were still importing hemp, tar, and pitch, together with other naval stores, from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. As the English carried little merchandise into these kingdoms, they were forced to purchase such indispensable materials principally with coin, thus establishing a balance of trade against their own country, a condition which in that age was considered to be fruitful of many evils, including the impoverishment of the people by the withdrawal of money and the certain interruption of necessary supplies in the event of a war. The suggestion that the Virginians should furnish pitch, tar, and hemp in place of the inhabitants of Northern Europe, a suggestion made, as we have seen, when the colonization of American territory by the English first began, was only extraordinary in the light of the inability of the landowners to obtain these materials from their forests at a cost that would leave some room for profit.

In 1666, the quantity of tobacco remaining in the hands of the planters was so large, being that portion of the crop of 1665 which was undisposed of and a mere drug in the market, that the General Assembly decided to send messengers to Maryland to induce the authorities there to unite with the authorities of Virginia to enforce a cessation in planting, in spite of the order of the King in 1664.