had been purchased, but also compelled the people to pay at high rates for goods which could have been bought at low rates if obtained directly from the Magazine itself.[1] Replying to these communications, the Governor and Council after reprobating the engrossing and forestalling of merchandise as wrong in themselves, firmly denied that they had been practised in Virginia.[2] When Wyatt was appointed to administer the affairs of the Colony, he came over with special instructions to put a summary stop to these forms of extortion, if they should be found to exist, and if not, to adopt measures which would prevent their arising.
The General Court passed an order in 1626, forbidding any person who had purchased goods in Virginia to dispose of them at prices higher than he had paid for them, under a penalty of five hundred pounds of tobacco; and in 1629, a second order of the same court fixed the penalty at an amount of that commodity representing three times the value of the articles sold.[3] In 1630, it was enacted that no one should be allowed to buy imported merchandise, whether on board ship or ashore, unless he intended to apply it to his own use, and if he found that he had purchased a greater quantity than he really needed, he should have the right to dispose of his surplus only at the rates at which he had acquired it. Goods were to be exchanged only on the basis of six pence for every pound of tobacco.[4] In 1622, a forestaller was legally defined as a man who had obtained, under the terms of a contract, actual possession of merchandise or right to its possession before it reached
- ↑ Company’s Letter, dated September, 1621, Neill’s Virginia Company of London, p. 245.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 369. They reprobated “ingrossing as horrible Treasone against God himselfe.”
- ↑ General Court Orders, Oct. 13, 1626; General Assembly, Oct. 16, 1629, Robinson Transcripts, pp. 91, 96.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, pp. 150, 162.
