Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/282

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ruinous to the Company if the returns in England alone were considered.

to fifty-five thousand pounds. The hard character of the measure appears from the fact that the importation of the Virginian leaf during the previous year had amounted to forty thousand pounds. [1]

would have incurred in sending to London a ton of grain, purchased at the rate of seven shillings a bushel, would have been very near to eighty-nine shillings. No association or individual could afford for any length of time to continue an importation entailing such an enormous deficit, which in this instance would have been further increased by the shrinkage of the grain and the payment of customs. The highest price which the Company

  1. Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 617. See also Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, vol. I, p. 116.