not in possession of such as had been scaled or tried in England, upon the penalty of forfeiting one thousand pounds of tobacco. If the commissioners of the county, upon whom was imposed the duty of securing the proper measures and weights, failed to do so, they were to be fined five thousand pounds.[1]
The measures and weights to be found at the different county seats were procured from England. In 1665, Colonel Lemuel Mason and Major Thomas Willoughby were appointed by the court of Lower Norfolk County to enter into an agreement with a reliable shipmaster to import a full set of these instruments for use in that county.
The Navigation laws undoubtedly had the effect of placing the people more in the power of the English merchants by restricting to the latter the right of importing into the Colony all of its foreign supplies. These laws went into practical operation after the Restoration, and perhaps raised the prices of imported goods in Virginia higher at first than they did afterwards, when the demand for its staple in the English market had increased, furnishing a larger field for its sale, and when British shipping had grown in volume, thus reducing the charges for freight. It was observed as early as 1657, that shoes, bought at the rate of twelve pounds of tobacco during the time the Dutch traders were introducing supplies into the Colony, could not be obtained after the passage of the first
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. II, pp. 89, 90. In 1678, the justices of Lower Norfolk County were indicted by the Grand Jury for not providing weights and measures as the law required. Original vol. 1675-1686, f. p. 40.
