Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/365

 them as to all dangerous points in the waters in which he served as pilot.

At an early period in the history of the Colony, strict laws were passed prohibiting the master or owner of a ship from breaking bulk before his vessel came to anchor off Jamestown Island. The object of these laws in the beginning was to put a stop to forestalling and engrossing commodities, as an evil especially injurious to Virginia because its population was so far removed from the source of manufactured supplies. In later times, the desire to promote the growth of Jamestown by making it the only port of entry was an important motive in the passage of the same class of Acts; and after the imposition of a duty on all liquors brought into the Colony, the determination to secure the full amount of the public funds arising from this tax, which could be done only by requiring all vessels arriving to hold their cargoes unbroken until the port of entry had been reached, was an additional reason for these enactments. As early as 1617, Governor Argoll instructed the masters of all ships dropping anchor at Kecoughtan to refuse permission to their sailors to go on land or to the colonists to come on board, as the mariners, when allowed to have personal intercourse with the people, obtained an opportunity of disposing of the goods consigned to persons in Virginia who happened to have died before the arrival of the ship. It was provided in 1623, by an Act of Assembly, that as soon as a vessel reached anchorage at Point Comfort, an officer should go on board and read a proclamation directing that without the express permission of the Governor and