royal use.[1] At the same time, the King seems to have approved of the terms of the offer which Mr. Amis and his associates propounded for the tobacco of Virginia and the Somers Isles. Representatives of the planters of the two Colonies who were in London in April of the same year, were summoned to meet at the house of Sir John Wolstenholme, and upon their assembling, the quantity which the contractors proposed to take and the price they would give were announced in the form of an order of the Privy Council. The representatives firmly refused to consent to either, on the ground that the amount was too small and the price too low to furnish the population of the Colonies an adequate subsistence.[2]
It is a striking indication of the feeling which the people of Virginia entertained towards all schemes for the purchase of their tobacco in a mass, that on this occasion, before they had been informed as to the particulars of the Amis contract, they exclaimed most earnestly against it. The Governor gave voice to this feeling in a communication which he addressed to the Privy Council, and which bears the date of the day preceding the meeting at the house of Sir John Wolstenholme. He declared that the inhabitants of the Colony would only consent to the arrangement if the quantity of their tobacco to be taken annually by the contractors was increased to three hundred thousand pounds, and the price advanced to three shillings a pound, payable either in bills of exchange when preferred, or in a standing magazine of necessary merchandise. All of that commodity which remained in excess of the amount fixed upon was to be disposed of in the open
