deficiency in their crop was supplied by evasion of the Navigation Act, either in the way of smuggling or in navigating English bottoms with Dutch sailors, or by purchase from the importer in whatever English harbor the vessel containing the cargo acquired may have entered, the ship being directed to proceed upon her course. France had been forced, by her exclusion from Virginian waters, to engage in the production of the leaf, and already a large quantity was raised in the provinces of that country. England herself would only buy the amount for which she possessed a market. Her volume of consumption was well known. All in excess of this volume would be left to rot on the dunghills of the plantations, as it could not now be transported either to Holland or France. Bland urged upon the attention of the English Government the justice of allowing the colonists the privilege of exporting to foreign countries the tobacco not needed in England, and he proposed that the Dutch ships should be admitted into Virginia, on condition that they should submit to a tax that would cover the difference of cost between the Dutch and English shipping, and after giving bills of exchange for the settlement of such customs as would have been payable if the cargo were intended for the mother country. This suggestion, which was both reasonable and practicable, did not receive the slightest attention, and the whole petition created no impression on the minds of those whom its author was seeking to influence.[1]
- ↑ Irregular trading, the natural consequence of the enforcement of the Navigation Act, continued to be a subject of complaint with the authorities in Virginia during the remainder of the century, although an armed vessel was granted by the English Government, to be used in patrolling the coast. One of the objects which this vessel was intended to secure, was to prevent the passage through the Capes of any ship which could not show possession of the usual bond requiring the transportation of its cargo to England. See Report on Ketch, dated Council Chamber, Oct.
