Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/223

 in England at three shillings and six pence, in Virginia at ten pence or a shilling. The same difference was to be noticed with respect to turkeys and ducks.

In the True and Sincere Declaration, issued in December, 1609, by the Governor and Council for Virginia, there was an advertisement for two brewers, who as soon as they were secured were to be dispatched to the Colony; and in a broadside published about this time the advertisement was repeated. Brewers were also included among the tradesmen who were designed by the Company to go over with Sir Thomas Gates. This indicated the importance in the eyes of that corporation of establishing the means in Virginia of manufacturing malt liquors on the spot instead of relying on the importations from England. The notion arose that one of the principal causes of the mortality so prevalent among those arriving in the Colony in the period following the first settlement of the country was the substitution of water for the beer to which the immigrants had been accustomed in England. The Assembly, in the session of 1623-24, went so far as to recommend that all new comers should bring in a supply of malt to be used in brewing liquor, thus making it unnecessary to drink the water of Virginia until the body had become hardened to the climate.

Previous to 1625, two brew-houses were in operation in the Colony, and the patronage which they received was evidently very liberal. The population of Virginia at