Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/354

 of shoes, and in the same year for a saddle and for letter paper. In 1690, he orders to be sent to him half a dozen riding neck-cloths and two or three pairs of linen stocks. While his house at Westover was in the course of erection in 1690, he instructs his English merchant to ship to him in Virginia a bedstead, bed, and curtains, a looking-glass, one small and one middling oval table, and a dozen Russian leather chairs. From time to time he procures from England through the same agency clothing of every kind and a great variety of European wines.

It was not uncommon for the captain of a vessel on the point of transporting the crop of a planter to England, to enter into a contract with him, by the terms of which, the shipmaster was to exchange his cargo in the mother country for goods specified in the agreement between the two parties. An instance of this nature is found in the records of Rappahannock for 1669. Thomas Butler of that county in this year bound himself to deliver to George Brown, the captain of the Elizabeth of London, three hogsheads of sweet-scented tobacco belonging to the choicest portion of his crop. Brown was to carry this tobacco to England and there was to dispose of it for money sterling. After having laid aside twenty-two pounds for his own use, the amount of a claim which he held against Butler for goods previously sold to him, Brown was to employ whatever remained in buying linen and woollen cloths, shoes, and stockings, to be conveyed to Butler in Virginia.

The general course of the English merchant in dealing with the planters was to send out a cargo to Virginia, there to be placed in the hands of a factor who had