Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/340

 gallons, eight being required to make a ton. The loss in consequence of the number of casks, casks and contents not being discriminated in the weight, was estimated at one-third. The same objection was urged against the sugar-barrel, which, by increasing the number needed in transportation, added in proportion to the amount paid in freight, without any compensation for so much dead material. Among the merchants of Barbadoes who made large sales of commodities in Virginia in the course of the last half of the seventeenth century were James Graham, Thomas Beard, John Felton, Richard Bats, Christopher Mercer, John Barwick, and John Sadler. The trade between Virginia and the West Indies was not confined to Barbados. The following is taken from the Records of Lower Norfolk County: &#8220;Know all men. . . that I, William Sheers, of London, merchant, have agreed with Mr. John Brett of Nansemond, merchant, that I, the said William Sheers, is to receive aboard ye ship Francis and Mary, now riding in Elizabeth River and bound for Antigua, Mavis and St. Christopher, within thirty days after ye date, six head of neat cattle with provisions for there, on the said Brett paying for their transportation 700 lbs. of the best muscovado sugar, to be paid at ye arrival of the ship at either of above places within ten days, the said Sheers to find water for said cattle until their arrival, and one hogshead of corn for every one of them, freight free; and for all other goods Brett shall have aboard is to pay at ye rate of 350 lbs. good muscovado sugar, the penalty being 1600 lbs. Virginia tobacco.&#8221; This contract is dated 1657. See Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1656-1666, p. 133. In 1685, William Dundas of Jamaica appointed Henry Spratt and Antony Lawson of the &#8220;continent of Virginia&#8221; his agents in the collection of debts due him by the estate of Robert Calderwood. Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1675-1686, f. p. 202. In 1693, John Wilkinson, Governor of the Bermudas, empowered Thomas Walke of Lower Norfolk County to act as his attorney in that county. See original vol. 1685-1696, f. p. 194. Reference to a Jersey ship will be found in Records of General Court, p. 99, and to a Jersey merchant&#8217;s estate in Virginia, in ibid. p. 62.

The commercial intercourse between Virginia and the islands of the West Indies was often of an illicit character, the duty on liquor, so much of which was imported into the Colony from these islands, causing many