Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/425

 in the projected towns and forego tobacco culture altogether, of the burden of the public levies, but also during a period of five years exempted them in the boundaries of their towns from personal arrest and from seizure of their goods for the payment of debts which they had at a previous time contracted elsewhere. The most favorable legislation, however, was unable to create a large and prosperous class of mechanics in Virginia, that is to say, a class of men following the trades, who earned their livelihood and accumulated a competence in these pursuits alone. It was natural that no body of mechanics resembling those to be found in England arose and flourished in the Colony. The most hostile influence was perhaps the lack of a metallic currency. It was stated as early as 1626, that the absence of such a currency was a serious obstruction to the advance in prosperity of the manual trades. A decade later, the same impediment existed to a still more discouraging degree. Harvey declared in a letter to Secretary Windebank that mechanics positively refused to follow their callings because they were compelled, after finishing their work, to wait for their remuneration until the crop of tobacco for the year had been gathered in and cured. In the interval, they complained, and complained justly, that they wanted the means with which to support themselves and their families. To modify this condition, a law was passed prescribing that all pieces of eight should be current as equal in value to five shillings, irrespective of the metal entering into their