found that the security for his credits had for that year at least been preempted, and in consequence he was forced to defer his collections for a period of twelve months.[1] This fact indicates the extreme precariousness of the trade, and it was quite probably no uncommon instance. The necessary loss of interest for twenty-four months on the money originally invested in the goods disposed of to the colonists in the case especially referred to, could only have been covered by an extraordinary profit in the sale of the tobacco when it lead at last been paid. It was only the certainty of such a profit which would have justified the merchant in running such risks.
Devries formed a high opinion of the capacity of the Virginians in the matter of bargains. Peter, he said, was always very near Paul in that country. Unless the foreign merchant was on the alert, he was in danger of being stuck in the tail. To get the best of him in an exchange, by deceit, was considered to be a Roman action, which entitled the performer to admiration and praise.[2] The Dutchman was probably smarting under the recollection of having been outwitted when he expressed this opinion; it sounds oddly as coming from a citizen of the nation which was justly regarded as being composed of the shrewdest and not the most scrupulous traders of that age. If all the deceits practised in the dealings with the people of the Colony in the seventeenth century were carefully summed up and a balance struck as to which party secured the greatest advantage from them, the
