Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/406

 to repress all efforts on the part of the colonists to manufacture their own clothing and other supplies equally necessary. The Dutch did not pay for the cargoes which they purchased of the Virginians in coin or bills of exchange, but in merchandise of various sorts. Every coat worn by the planter, every dram of spirits consumed by him, which had been obtained by means of tobacco from traders of Holland, diminished to that extent the value of the Virginian market for English goods; and to an equal extent, the value of that market was diminished whenever the planter substituted for the suit which he was able to buy of the English merchant, a suit woven, cut, and sewn by members of his own family. To promote or allow the growth of the manufacturing spirit in the Colony was as dangerous as to refuse to interfere with the exercise on the part of its people of the right of absolute free trade. In time, they might not only meet their own needs as to manufactured goods, but also export such goods to countries where England now enjoyed a profitable market, a market which might soon grow unprofitable to her by rivalry with Virginian competitors, since the latter would possess the advantage of cheaper raw materials as the basis of their manufactures. For these reasons, it appeared to be of vital importance to the English statesmen of the seventeenth century that the planters should not be allowed to take steps looking to the development of manufacturing interests among them, and it cannot be said that their views were wholly untenable. To permit the colonists to export their agricultural products to any foreign country and at the same time to foster manufactures in Virginia, was to destroy all the ties except those of race uniting England to the population of that territory; upon her would have been imposed the burden of defending the planters in case of