Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/217

 eight. Grain was to be furnished at the rate of forty pounds of tobacco a bushel, and oats at the rate of sixty pounds.

At different periods in the course of the seventeenth century, an attempt was made to arrange the general scale of prices at which articles of food were to be sold, without regard to their being disposed of in a tavern or not. This was often done in the early decades by the proclamation of the Governor and Council. The rates set by the owners were doubtless very much higher than those laid down in these proclamations, nevertheless the rates prescribed in the latter represented with substantial accuracy the true value of such articles at the time. In 1625, a pound of tobacco was worth about one shilling. In this year was renewed the proclamation that appeared in 1623, the year of the great dearth following the massacre, which led to exorbitant charges for the most ordinary articles. A pound of sugar was rated at one pound of tobacco or one shilling in coin, a firkin of butter at twenty pounds of tobacco or twenty shillings, Newfoundland fish at ten pounds of tobacco or ten shillings a hundred. Canada dry fish at twenty-four pounds of tobacco or twenty-four shillings a hundred, Canada wet fish at thirty pounds of tobacco or thirty shillings a hundred.

In 1642, a tax was imposed upon every tithable person in the Colony for the benefit of Governor Berkeley, to be paid in provisions of different kinds. The rate prescribed for geese and turkeys was five shillings apiece; for hens, twelve pence; for capons, one shilling and six pence; for beef, three and a half pence a pound; for a calf in condition to be slaughtered and converted into veal, twenty-five shillings; for a goat, twenty shillings; for a