Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/381

 that time; this removed from the consideration received by the merchant in his sales that element of fluctuation which marked all valuation in the latter commodity from year to year. A large proportion of these sales were on credit in anticipation of the next year&#8217;s crop. In the course of this interval, the price of the leaf might sink to a point which would not only leave him without a margin of gain, but even expose him to heavy loss. If his contract had been drawn in figures representing a fixed amount in money sterling, his profit would be independent of an advance or decline in the value of tobacco, and the same would be true if his running accounts were kept in the same form. As a means of ensuring ample security for the payment of debts due them for advancement of goods, many of the merchants required a purchaser to give a bill to be placed on record in the books of the county court where the transaction occurred; in this document, be acknowledged the amount which he owed, accompanying the admission with a statement that the obligation was to be met in the succeeding autumn, when the tobacco crop had been got in. In case what was due was not settled, the creditor in the bill, that is to say, the merchant, could take possession of the landed property conveyed to him subject to the payment of the debt. If the crop in the autumn was sufficient to cover what was owed by the purchaser of the goods, he could claim a release in full.

Another course followed by a merchant who had disposed of goods on credit was to insist that the purchaser should consent to a judgment in court in the amount of tobacco represented by his obligation, against all the property in his possession, and this judgment was enforced according to the provisions of a deed directing execution