Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/301

 secure a legitimate margin of profit. The planters asserted that the adventurers in England sold the leaf procured in the Colony at an advance of two hundred per cent over its cost in Virginia, and on this ground they justified a number of deceits in passing bad tobacco upon the Cape Merchant at the highest rates. There does not appear to have been any ground for this assertion. The Magazine sent out in the course of 1620, under the charge of Mr. Blaney, not only failed to assure any profit to the adventurers of that particular joint stock, but the very principal of the subscription was lost, and lost on account of the impossibility of obtaining in England prices for tobacco that would cover the amount expended in its purchase in Virginia, and the various charges attendant upon the voyage. The abolition of the special rates adopted by the Assembly in 1619 became imperative. In July, 1621, the Company, in a letter addressed to the Governor and Council in Virginia, instructed them to secure for the Cape Merchant who would dispose of the cargo of the ship in which the letter was conveyed, full liberty to sell the goods at the highest prices offered, and to get the main commodity of the country in exchange without regard to the rates formerly prescribed by law. In the same month in which this order had been given, a Quarter Court was held, and four rolls were offered for subscriptions. One of these rolls related to clothing and articles of a like nature. Eighteen hundred pounds sterling were at once obtained,