composition. It was soon seen that this provision, which sought to give a fictitious value to coin intrinsically comparatively worthless, was more calculated to injure than to promote the welfare of the tradesmen. It was, therefore, determined that only silver pieces of eight should be accepted as worth five shillings and to pass current at that valuation.[1]
The influences which operated to depress the general condition of the trades remained in force down to 1700, and appeared to be just as strong at the end as in the middle of the century. The free mechanic was still compelled to pass from plantation to plantation in search of work, and a large part of his time was absorbed in these journeys, owing to the great distance intervening between the different estates. He was still remunerated for his services, not in coin, but in the staple of the country, which could be delivered only at one season in the year. In performing his tasks, therefore, he either expected payment to be made many months subsequently, when a crop not yet in the ground or only recently planted had been gathered in, granting that it escaped the numerous casualties to which tobacco was subject while in the hill, or he received his fee in small parcels of that commodity, which it was both inconvenient and expensive to transport to his own home.[2] Having obtained these parcels, there was no market in which he could use them in the purchase of supplies of meal and bread. He could not always rely upon his neighbors to buy them. He was, therefore, almost forced to produce grain and breed live stock, even if he did not cultivate tobacco. This is only one of the many instances in the economic history of Virginia in the seventeenth century, of the obstructive
