Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/585

 of slavery upon existing institutions grew to be profound; and yet that this impression was not essentially different from that which the early system of indented service produced, is shown in the general identity of the Virginian communities during the whole of the eighteenth century with the same communities previous to the middle of the seventeenth, when the number of slaves amounted only to a few hundred. Indeed, there is nothing in the history of the Colony in the seventeenth century more striking than the similarity between the conditions prevailing then under the system of indented labor, and those prevailing under the institution of slavery as soon as it became universal, down to the hour of its destruction, although two hundred years had passed, and a radical change of government had taken place. The explanation lay wholly in the fact that the requirements for the production of tobacco had during this long period remained practically the same. Although artificial manures had been introduced, the planters still preferred that virgin soil which could only be obtained by clearing away the forest. It was this fact still that maintained the system of large plantations in undiminished vigor.

No system of land tenure could have been adopted more admirably calculated to ensure the rapid settlement of the Colony than that which was in operation there throughout the seventeenth century. There were in that age no such facilities in ocean transportation as exist at present to diminish the outlay entailed by emigration from Europe to America. To-day, the expenses of the passage are so small that even the peasant can meet the unavoidable charges, and, in consequence, from all parts of the Old Country, men belonging to the lower ranks of life have flocked into the far West and taken up land. So costly was the voyage in the seventeenth century, that unless the importer of