required to be made of the sales of liquors on board of the vessel owned by Ralph Beane, a citizen of that Colony.[1] During the course of the last half of the century, the volume of trade between Virginia and Maryland steadily increased with their growth in wealth and population. The intercourse between the latter province and Lower Norfolk County seems to have been extremely frequent. Among the citizens of Maryland engaged in these commercial transactions, were William Holland, Edward Lloyd, Emanuel Ratcliffe, and Charles Egerton.[2] The exchanges with York and the Northern Neck were also very extensive. One of the notable features of the commerce between the two peoples at this time was the introduction into Virginia of mares from the Colony north of the Potomac, which was doubtless undertaken with a view to improving the breed of horses.[3]
The trade with the West Indies began as early as 1633, in which year, Captain Devries states that he made at Jamestown the acquaintance of Captain Stone, who had recently arrived from that part of America, it is to be presumed with a cargo of supplies to be bartered for tobacco.[4] The directors of the Dutch West India Company, writing to Stuyvesant in 1646, called his attention to the fact that persons from Virginia had already made their way to Curacoa, and were exchanging their commodities for its products.[5] Only a few years later, shipmasters from Barbadoes are found selling negroes to the
- ↑ Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of Council, vol. 1636-1667, pp. 94, 177.
- ↑ Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1661-1656, f. p. 109. Ibid., original vol. 1675-1686, f. pp. 106, 166, 186.
- ↑ Records of the General Court, p. 47.
- ↑ Devries’ Voyages from Holland to America, pp. 51, 52.
- ↑ Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York, vol. XIV, p. 77.
