Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/456

 after the massacre. The land upon which it was situated was conveyed during Governor Harvey&#8217;s administration to Anthony Coleman. By the heirs of Coleman, it was assigned to John Senior; from Senior it passed first to John Pitchett, then to John Phipps and William Harris. Phipps having conveyed his interest to Harris, Harris in turn conveyed the tract to Colonel Francis Morrison. This was done in September, 1655.

One of the strongest motives that led to the colonization of Virginia by the English was the expectation that it would supply the mother country with a vast quantity of raw iron. The demand for manufactured iron was rapidly increasing in England, and yet the ability of the English furnaces to meet this demand was declining on account of the diminishing quantity of fuel furnished by the local forests. It was entirely just that the English people should look forward to the day when they might be forced to rely on foreign nations for their supply of a material which was coming rapidly into greater use each year. In 1740, it is calculated that England and Wales together produced only seventeen thousand tons; ten years later, five thousand represented the increase. In 1621, the price of a ton of iron was about ten or twelve pounds sterling, equivalent in purchasing power to two hundred and fifty dollars. Virginia was expected not only to relieve England of its dangerous and uncertain dependence upon foreign nations for its supply of raw iron, but