Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/560

a few years before; the people were in a state of poverty in consequence of the turmoil through which they had passed and the continued low price of tobacco, and they were, therefore, prepared to adopt any suggestion which seemed likely to afford them relief. They were disposed to countenance a new Act of Cohabitation, in the hope that it would raise up occupations for the inhabitants of the Colony and probably diminish their dependence upon England for manufactures, the cost of which fell very heavily upon the people when their main commodity was depressed in value. The new statute made no reference to this anticipation, nor did it contain, like the statute of 1662, the expression of a loyal desire to conform to the wishes of the King; it merely declared that the reasons prompting its passage were the low prices of tobacco and the great advantages which would accrue from the establishment of storehouses at convenient places for the reception of all merchandise to be imported into the country and all tobacco to be exported. Under the terms of this statute, it was provided that fifty acres should be purchased by the authorities of each county in its own boundaries, to be held by duly appointed feoffees in trust. The price to be paid for this land was set at ten thousand pounds of tobacco, against which appraisement the owner of each fifty acres was without right of appeal, nor could he make a legal resistance to the appropriation itself. He was required to pass an absolute deed of conveyance, and in case he refused to do so, mere entry by the feoffees dispossessed him of his legal title. The following places were selected as sites for new towns: Varina in Henrico, Fleur de Hundred in Charles City, Smith’s Fort in Surry, Jamestown in James City, Patesfield in Isle of Wight, Huff’s Point in Nansemond, mouth of Deep Creek in Warwick, the Jervise plantation in Elizabeth City,