Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/322

 1651, when Virginia yielded to Cromwell, a war was in progress between England and Holland, but it appears to have had no influence upon the intercourse between the planters and the owners of Dutch vessels. When the surrender to the Commissioners of the Commonwealth took place, the quantity of goods in the Colony belonging to Dutch merchants was so large that a special clause was introduced in the articles of submission, stipulating that these goods should be protected from surprisal.

In a previous chapter, I have dwelt at some length on the exports of the Dutch from the Colony in the course of the Protectorate. There are only a few details relating to the importations by the same traders during this interval to be touched upon. In a petition now offered to the States-General by a large number of the merchants of Holland, who declare that for twenty years they had been engaged in commerce with the Virginians, they mention incidentally that the principal commodities which they had been conveying to the Colony were linen and coarse cloths, beer, brandy, and other distilled spirits. These goods were exempted from Dutch customs. Stuyvesant was at this time anxious that all vessels leaving the Low Countries with cargoes of merchandise for Virginia should be required to stop at New Amsterdam on the outward voyage, but the directors of the West India Company refused to comply with his request to that effect. The owners of these cargoes were in many cases English merchants