that personal estates should be sold for tobacco or coin as convenience should dictate to the executor.[1] Contracts for work to be paid for in money sterling alone were now drawn and strictly enforced by courts of law when appeal was made to them.[2] Coin was also the consideration in the sales of land.[3]
No financial device played a more important rule in the internal and external trade of the Colony than the bill of exchange. This instrument was only used when the party who gave it had a balance to his credit in the hands of some merchant, the drawee being generally a person of this calling who resided in England, New England, Barbadoes, or in one of the other English Colonies. Illustrations of the ordinary circumstances under which bills of exchange were passed may be offered. A foreign or native trader who was engaged in buying and selling Virginian tobacco purchased a large quantity of this commodity; instead of making payment in some form of merchandise or in money sterling, he delivered a bill of exchange drawn on a merchant who lived in England or in one of the Colonies, as the case might be. This manner of settling indebtedness was peculiarly agreeable to the planters who had direct dealings with these outside countries, as it placed a large sum to their credit in the very place where they were in the habit of buying goods. The person receiving the bill transmitted it to his own correspondent in England, New England, or Barbadoes, with instructions to collect it and devote the sum of money sterling thus
- ↑ Records of York County, orders for Oct. 2, 1692, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1684-1699, p. 8, Va. State Library.
- ↑ It is worthy of note, however, that when land at this time was sold for tobacco, the expression “sum of so many pounds of tobacco” was generally used. See Records of Rappahannock County, vol. 1671-1676, p. 338; vol. 1663-1668, p. 35.
