Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/299

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

by the Assembly exempted the planter from the operation of the rule constraining him to dispose of his tobacco to the Magazine. If the supplies contained in the Magazine did not include some article recognized as a necessary of life, such an article might be bought from any one who offered it for sale, but the purchaser was required in doing so to pay at the rate laid down for the same in all cases in which the Cape Merchant was the seller. In such purchases the consent of the Governor had first to be secured. The commodities produced in the boundaries of the land owned by private associations and known as Hundreds, were not brought to the Cape Merchant for exchange, the adventurers interested in the Hundreds enjoying the right to dispose of these commodities to their own profit, since this privilege had been granted to them under the provisions of their patents. They were, however, subject to certain important conditions. The commodities must have been produced in the limits of their jurisdiction and not obtained by trading with the planters who occupied lands which were the property of the Company. Furthermore, if upon the termination of a joint stock, a quantity of goods remained in the Magazine unsold, these goods were to be exhausted by purchasers residing in the Hundreds before the adventurers of the Hundreds could furnish them with supplies of the same character.

In 1619, a list of standing orders and laws, drawn from the letters patent of the King, the royal instructions and the rules established by the Company from time to time, was adopted. In the provisions for the regulation of trade, it was stated with great particularity that as soon as the period agreed upon for the continuation of the joint stock for the Magazine expired, entire liberty was to be allowed every one to enter into private commercial relations with