Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/382

 to issue immediately upon the failure to pay at the appointed time. In older to collect the debts which the planters in the Colony owed them, whether secured by a conditional deed or not, it seems to have been the custom of the English traders to send to Virginia agents who had, under powers of attorney carefully placed on record, the authority to represent their principals in suits if it was found necessary to have recourse to law to recover what was due. These men, like the ordinary factor who accompanied a cargo of goods, represented very frequently more than one trader. Merchants engaged in widely different branches of business seemed to have thus employed the same person.

By the provisions of a law passed at the session of 1657-58, the creditor was deprived of all right to require the settlement of a debt on demand, if made payable in tobacco, except in the interval between October 10th and