Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/602

 in the fields of their operation by thousands of miles of ocean, nevertheless, they were equally promotive of the introduction of agricultural laborers. The two complemented each other, for while the one prompted this class to abandon the mother country, the other induced the same class to make a settlement in the Colony.

The long interval between 1600 and 1700, was a period in which the most momentous principles of free government were contended for on the battle-field and in the council-chamber, and permanently secured as a part of the inalienable rights of the Anglo-Saxon race, but a hundred and fifty years were to pass before the English laborer was to feel in his daily life the beneficent influence of these hard-won victories. It was a period of scientific activity which in time was to lead to a vast improvement in the economic condition of every class in the English communities by the wiser use of all the powers and resources of nature, but as yet the position of the workingman remained unaltered. The expanding commerce brought him little advantage. The new countries which the English explorers were opening up offered a virgin field, it is true, but it was a field which could only be reached by first enduring all the pangs of exile,&#8212;grievous enough even for those who are flying from intolerable evils.

Under the provisions of the statute 5 Eliz., C. 3, no one was permitted to follow a trade unless he had first served an apprenticeship, and all not otherwise employed were required to take part in husbandry. The practical effect of this regulation was to establish a privileged class of artisans who were assured of steady and remunerative labor, while the masses of the people were thrown upon agricultural work as their only means of obtaining a livelihood, the rates of wages being laid down by the justices