Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/498

 duty of two shillings imposed upon every hogshead exported, subject, however, to the condition that he was to deliver to persons designated by the Assembly the salt which he manufactured, the exchange to be made at the rate of two shillings and six pence a bushel. No salt was to be imported into the county of Northampton after 1663, and if the master of a ship, bark, or any smaller craft disregarded this order, he was to suffer the confiscation of his vessel. Anticipating that Colonel Scarborough might be unable to supply by his own manufacture the people of the Eastern Shore with the whole amount they required, the Assembly at a later date granted to him the exclusive privilege of importing this article into that Peninsula, and if the needs of the inhabitants in this respect were not met in spite of these additional facilities for obtaining salt, they were to be permitted to buy it of any one who possessed it, for their own use, but not for the purpose of selling it. This monopoly having been found to be repugnant to the public health and convenience, it was withdrawn as far as it related to Northampton, and was not again renewed. There is no evidence that salt was manufactured anywhere in Virginia in the seventeenth century except on the Eastern Shore, the waters of the inland bays and estuaries being less impregnated with brine than the waters of the open sea. The reference to the importation of the foreign article became more frequent towards the close of the century. This importation was never interrupted in the greater portion of the Colony, salt being brought in as a part of the annual supplies consigned to Virginia.