Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/516

 they resided to answer for their disregard of the provisions of the statute. This Act failed to accomplish the purpose which it had in view. It was announced that it had been passed in the interest of mechanics especially, and yet the mechanics, as soon as they had had some experience of its practical operation, appear to have been the first to protest against it, on the ground that, after laboring for a subsistence, &#8220;they had only so many counters instead of sterling money for the sweat of their brows.&#8221; It is obvious that advantage was taken of the regulation, to pass, not only upon members of that class but also upon others, a quantity of spurious coin.

All debts which by the terms of the contract were to be paid in money sterling could now be enforced in court, provided that these debts had not been incurred in the interval between 1643 and 1649. In that case they were held to be unpleadable.

The continued anxiety of the Assembly to promote an influx of money sterling is shown in the acknowledgment introduced into the preamble of the celebrated regulation imposing a tax of two shillings upon every hogshead exported from Virginia. It is there stated that one motive for the adoption of the regulation was that it would perhaps be conducive to the increase of the volume of coin in the Colony, an anticipation based upon the fact that when the duty of one penny for the benefit of the Register was placed on each cask, a regulation which was in operation only during a brief period, the shipmasters in many cases