The freight rates fluctuated with circumstances. In 1630, there was a sharp complaint on the part of the planters that they were compelled to pay twelve pounds sterling a ton, which at this period consisted of four hogs-heads, this extortionate charge continuing until the General Assembly interposed, in the session of 1639-40, with the enactment that all masters of vessels who advanced the freight rate beyond six pounds were to be fined in such an amount as the Governor and Council should consider advisable.[1] Thirty years later these masters were sometimes instructed by the owners of their craft to grant transportation at seven pounds sterling a ton; if the ship in making the voyage to England was to pass by the West Indies, there was an additional charge of twenty shillings.[2] In a bill of lading which Robert Bauldry received in 1675,
