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 were not adverse to the suggestion, as has been seen, provided that in buying their product, a rate was adopted which would not assure a higher degree of profit to the owners of the goods than twenty-five per cent. In the negotiations carried on by Sir George Yeardley, as the agent of the planters, and a Mr. Amis, who proposed to enter into a contract for a large part of the annual crop, it was required of the latter that he should furnish a standing magazine of articles to be exchanged for tobacco on the basis of eighteen pence a pound. This proposition was rejected by Amis, although it would have insured him a gain of fifty per cent upon the cost of his merchandise in England.

There was now no dearth of imported supplies in the Colony. So great was the abundance of goods brought in immediately previous to 1630, that the planters became deeply indebted to the different persons who traded in Virginia. The quantity of commodities of various sorts brought in after that date increased in proportion to the growth of population, not being exposed to serious interruptions except in an interval when foreign wars were in progress. During the long period between 1630 and 1700, the great volume of goods landed in the Colony were exported from England. A very important proportion, however, previous to 1661, came from Holland, and also both before and after that year, from the New Netherlands, the West Indies, New England, New York, and Maryland.