Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/555

 shallop to Jamestown was fixed at ten pounds of that commodity per thousand, and the owner of the storehouse in which it was deposited was to receive six pounds in the same proportion. None of these charges prevailed under the system in force at the time this statute became a law; the planter rolled his tobacco on board the merchantman at his wharf, or transported it in a sloop of his own to a point where the vessel was lying. No expense, as a rule, was incurred in this course, for the work was generally performed by his own men. The charges entailed by the proposed law would have been borne with impatience even during periods of high prices for tobacco, but when this product was selling at a low rate the burden was intolerable, and was in itself sufficient to render the statute in operation altogether hopeless of a good effect. To ensure the transfer of a still larger quantity of tobacco to Jamestown, it was further provided that no vessel should take on board a cargo between that place and Mulberry Island. All tobacco ready for shipment above the latter point was to be conveyed to Jamestown first, and there loaded for transportation abroad. Whatever merchandise was consigned to planters or merchants residing between the capital and Mulberry Island was to be landed at the former place, and, if a vessel was loaded or unloaded elsewhere, its cargo was to be forfeited. To promote the growth of population at Jamestown, it was provided that during the first two years following the inauguration of the work of building houses there, the person and property of every man who resided in the town, and passed to and from it in the course of his daily business, should for two years be exempted from every form of legal process unless it was issued for debt contracted within the bounds of the corporation, or for the commission of a capital crime. An important provision of the law was that after its passage