Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/295

 the goods in the Magazine. Moreover, the free trade inaugurated by the Governor destroyed all uniformity in the rates of purchase, upon which the adventurers in the joint stock had relied for their margin of gain. Argoll was undoubtedly influenced in this independent course by a spirit of the grossest selfishness. His general career as Executive was in keeping with this open violation of the orders which he had received from his superior officers in England. It is, however, an open question as to what extent a conscientious person in his position might have thought that a free exchange of the products of Virginia for the merchandise of any trader who might come forward to barter, was more promotive of the best interests of the inhabitants, even at this early period, than the monopoly enjoyed by the adventurers of the Magazine, who had the countenance and the aid of the Company itself. There was no difference of opinion as to Argoll&#8217;s action among the great body of the members, those not immediately interested in the Magazine holding the same views as those who were. The Magazine, they declared with great earnestness, was the prop of the Plantation and the life of the adventurers. To destroy the profit expected of it by allowing an absolute free commerce was to deprive the Colony, still in a state of infancy, of an animal supply which could be relied on with the fullest confidence. No adventurers would be willing to send out a cargo of goods without assurance of a market, or at best with the prospect only of sales at very low rates. The collapse of the joint stock would inevitably inflict injury upon the people, even though it should give encouragement to persons who desired to trade in Virginia on their own private account.