Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/536

 same class for the accomplishment of common economic purposes became more marked. This spirit not only obstructed the systematic advance of manufactures, but it also prevented the erection of towns. So powerful was the tendency towards the concentration of all economic interests in the plantation, and so weak was the disposition of the planters to cooperate in their economic affairs, that even had Virginia in the seventeenth century possessed but one harbor to which all vessels engaged in transporting to the other Colonies and to Europe the tobacco produced in its soil had been compelled to resort in order to secure their cargoes, it is doubtful whether even then the absence of towns would have been less marked. There would have been a small concentration of population at that point, but not in proportion to the economic importance of the spot. Instead of there being one harbor, as suggested hypothetically, there were almost as many harbors as plantations. In the seventeenth century, as has been observed already, the area included in the patents was confined principally to the lands which were situated immediately on the navigable streams. The number of these streams was extraordinary. Beginning with the Powhatan, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac, there were, at comparatively short intervals, rivers, creeks, or estuaries deep enough to float the largest ships employed in the carrying trade between Virginia and England. At that early period, every planter owned a wharf; indeed the strongest season after fertility of soil which influenced him in selecting a tract of land was that it fronted on a water highway. Even if the stream was not sufficiently deep to afford room for the keel of a large vessel, it gave free passage to the shallops in which the planter&#8217;s tobacco could be conveyed to the place where the ship was lying at anchor. With these facilities at his own door for moving his crop to market, there was nothing to