of extortion; that they were not practised in Virginia; and that the Council were ignorant of the meaning of the terms.[1]
However small or large the gains of the foreign merchant, whether dealing with the inhabitants of Virginia by means of annual vessels, the cargoes of which were peddled wherever on the various rivers purchasers could be found, or sold through factors or agents who resided in the Colony, which was the usual course, the profit was sufficiently great to tempt most of the enterprising planters to enter into trade on their own account. It was one of the most marked features of the economic life of Virginia in the seventeenth century, that the leading citizens were engaged in more than one pursuit. The lawyers and physicians were not only producers of tobacco, but also keen speculators who bought a large quantity of that commodity with goods or bills of exchange and shipped it to England to be disposed of by their representatives there. At a period as early as 1637, George Menefie, who was interested in planting, described himself as a merchant of the corporation of James City,
- ↑ Instructions to Culpeper, British State Papers, Colonial, 1681-82; reply to 56th clause, McDonald Papers, vol. VI, p. 153, Va. State Library.
