Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/563

 It can be seen how seriously a provision of this kind, if carried fully into effect, would have added to the expenses of the planter. Instead of dropping its anchor at his wharf and there discharging a cargo of goods and taking on a cargo of tobacco, the trading vessel would have stopped at a point ten, twenty, or even fifty miles away. Whether the planter was compelled to reach this vessel by transporting his tobacco in a hired shallop or sloop, or in a vessel of his own, he would have been put to an expense for which he could expect no return. The intervention of a rolling-house would have been favorable to his convenience, but would not have diminished the charge imposed by the system of ports of entry. Under the terms of this law, the tobacco conveyed thither was to be exempted in the course of transportation, and after it reached its destination, from the process of law for any debt which might have been contracted previous to the passage of the statute, and the same privilege was extended to the bodies and estates of the citizens of the new town. In neither case, however, was it to continue for a longer period than five years. At the end of that time, the creditors of such persons might bring suit without apprehension lest the statute of limitations should be offered in bar. To enjoy this protection, it was necessary that the debt should not have been contracted within the bounds of one of the proposed corporations. After the publication of the Act, all mechanics residing in the new communities were to be exempted for a period of five years from the payment of levies, on condition that they neither planted nor tended tobacco. In order to diminish the expense entailed in establishing a town, it was provided that two counties might unite and erect it upon a site equally convenient to the inhabitants of both.

This Act was as judicious and as far-seeing in its details