Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/395

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

sauce-pans, frying-pans, gridirons, tongs, shovels, hoes, iron posts, tables, physic, wool-cards, gimlets, compasses, needles, stirrups, looking-glasses, candlesticks, candles, funnels, twenty-five pounds of raisins, one hundred gallons of brandy, twenty gallons of wine, and ten gallons of aquavitæ. The contents of the Hubbard store were valued at six hundred and fourteen pounds sterling, a sum which represented about fifteen thousand dollars in our present currency.[1]

The inventory of the store of Edward Phelps, taken in 1679, showed the same enormous disproportion of cloths and clothing as compared with other kinds of goods. There were for one item alone about six hundred and seventy-five yards of linen of many varieties, and also about three hundred yards of woollen, eighty-one pairs of stockings, fifty pairs of shoes, a large quantity of tape, gimp and thread buttons, felt hats, blankets, curtains, and valances. In addition it included many articles of a miscellaneous character, such as smoothing-irons, scissors, knives, bellows, frying-pans, pots, kettles, spoons, hoes, axes, files and adzes, curry-combs, saddles, nutmegs, mustard, soap, twenty-four thousand ten-penny nails, seventeen thousand six-penny, eight thousand double-penny, one hundred and nine pounds of shot, twenty pairs of fishing lines, and fifteen hooks for sheepsheads. The contents of this store were appraised at one hundred and ninety-four pounds sterling, or about forty-eight hundred dollars in our present currency.

  1. Records of York County, vol. 1664-1672, p. 319, Va. State Library.