tobacco[1] The demand for them was, however, more sustained than the demand for manufactured goods in general, or articles of luxury, because they were considered more indispensable, the possession of laborers being necessary for the production of the crop which furnished the only means the planters possessed of buying their supplies. In 1683, William Byrd, writing to his agent in England,[2] ordered that a number of youths and adults should be sent him to be used in exchange for a large quantity of the finest tobacco, which, he remarks, it is difficult to purchase without servants, and a few years later, he repeats his request in still stronger and more urgent language.[3] Colonel Byrd was only referring to an acknowledged fact in making this statement, which was probably even truer of am earlier time than of the period in which he lived. In collecting a large number of servants, whether bound to him by indenture or not, the merchant who was about to dispatch a ship to Virginia felt that he could count upon a certain market in which to dispose of them, although not upon a handsome profit, since this would depend upon the sale of tobacco in the following year, and the tendency of that commodity to sink suddenly in price was even more marked than its tendency to rise suddenly.
There was another reason for his anxiety to procure a
- ↑ Secretary Kemp, writing to Windebank, April 6, 1638, said: “Of hundreds which are yearly transported, scarce any but are brought in as merchandise to make sale of.” British State Papers, Colonial, vol. IX, No. 96; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1633, p. 8, Va. State Library. William Fitzhugh states in a letter bearing date Oct. 2, 1684, that a ship had just arrived in James River having thirty servants on board for sale.
- ↑ “If you could send me six, eight or ten servants (men or lusty boys) by the first ship, and the procuration might not be too dear, they would much assist in purchasing some of our best crops; they seldom being to be bought without servants.” Letters of William Byrd, Feb. 25, 1683.
- ↑ Letters of William Byrd, March 29, 1685.
