planters along the York and James.[1] It was the custom of many of the vessels sailing from this island to proceed first to Virginia and afterwards to New England. The occasional course of trade is shown in the case of a cargo forwarded to the Colony towards the close of the century by Messrs. Anthony Palmer and Company; it was to be delivered to Paul Carrington, who was instructed to exchange it for tobacco, pitch, tar, and live hogs. If he found it impossible to obtain the return cargo in the course of five weeks, or to secure a freight rate of five pounds sterling a ton, he was commanded to dispatch the ship to Philadelphia with a load of pitch and tar.[2] In a vessel which left Barbadoes in 1661, the Charles of Southton, there were among the consignments for Virginia, six hogsheads of bay salt.[3] In some instances these consignments were restricted to negroes, in others to sugar, rum, and molasses.[4] How large they were very often, is illustrated in the case of William Byrd. On one occasion he obtained from this island twelve hundred gallons of rum, five thousand pounds of muscovado sugar, three tons of molasses, two hundred pounds of ginger, and one cask of lime-juice; on another, four thousand gallons of rum, five thousand pounds of muscovado, one very heavy barrel of white sugar, and ten tons of molasses. The planter who had gone to Barbadoes to buy these commodities in person was frequently able
- ↑ Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1646-1651, f. p. 115. The monthly wages of these shipmasters were frequently paid in sugar at the rate of six pennies the hundred-weight, ten pounds in the hundred being allowed for shrinkage. Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1646-1651, f. p. 205.
- ↑ William and Mary College Quarterly, April, 1893, pp. 200, 201.
- ↑ Records of Lancaster County, original vol. 1666-1682, p. 31.
- ↑ Records of Rappahannock County, original vol. 1656-1664, p. 274. Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1666-1675, p. 23.
