the persons engaged in it, whether living in Virginia or England, was transacted on a basis of credit, and many of the sales in consequence resulted in debts which it was found impossible to collect. This was a danger to which the trader was especially liable, not only in the early part of the seventeenth century when the population was still comparatively small, and when, its has been seen, there was a strong disposition among so many to move from one locality to another in search of virgin lands, thus enabling them to a large extent to evade their obligations, but also in the latter part of the century, when the older communities had become firmly established and their inhabitants as a mass fixed to the soil, with property that could be levied on without obstruction. A number of the planters were still disposed to shirk their debts and could only be trusted at a risk of loss. There were many instances of individuals among them who, having become deeply involved for advances of supplies, were induced to throw off the weight of their obligations by taking refuge in Maryland and so escaping the process of their creditors.[1] It was not improbably in consequence of this disposition to abscond on the part of debtors among the colonists, that the regulation was adopted that all persons residing in Virginia who decided to go on a journey or voyage beyond the boundaries of the Colony were required to put their intention on public record sometime beforehand, in order that it might become a matter of common notoriety.
- ↑ Letters of William Fitzhugh, Feb. 18, 1687.
