Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/344

 the crops of the planters to whom goods had been sold on credit, not improbably twelve months beforehand. The English merchants were in the habit of doing this, and in consequence enjoyed a notable advantage over their Dutch rivals. The opinion of Captain Devries was just as correct in its relation to the condition of trade fifty years later as it was at the particular period in which he wrote. In 1683, Colonel William Fitzhugh, who had a thorough knowledge of the course of business in Virginia, corresponding with certain shipowners in New England who had recently for the first time sent to the Colony a vessel loaded with merchandise, but with no one to dispose of it but the captain, who was ignorant of the country, stated that casual trading was destructive of all profit, because the owner of the goods, being in Virginia only for a short time, had to hasten his departure to reduce the cost attendant upon the navigation of his ship, and was, therefore, compelled to sell in order to secure a cargo of tobacco, whether its price was high or low. If, on the other hand, the merchandise, as soon as it was brought to the Colony, was placed in the hands of a factor, the latter could as occasion arose gradually dispose of it to advantage, being in a position to wait for an advance in rates if those prevailing were not satisfactory. When the vessel belonging to the owner of the commodities arrived, the products for which these commodities had previously from time to time been exchanged would be ready for delivery at certain places, and the expense of a long stay would be avoided. These facts were well known to the English traders and governed their action. The English merchants who supplied the planters with manufactured articles may be roughly divided into two