the emigration of tradesmen to Virginia.[1] The evil still remained that after the tradesmen arrived, they persisted in forsaking the pursuits in which they had been educated and expending their labor in the production of tobacco. So injurious were the effects of this irresistible inclination, that in 1633, brickmakers, carpenters, joiners, sawyers, and turners were expressly forbidden to take part in any form of tillage and the commanders were required to enforce the regulation. To encourage the tradesmen to rely upon their business alone for a livelihood, they were to receive remuneration for the work which they had done for the different planters, out of the tobacco that under the Inspection Act of this year was to be brought to the several stores to be erected for its safe-keeping.[2] In the instructions given to Wyatt in 1638-39 and to Berkeley in 1641, all the handicraftsmen in the Colony were to be drawn into towns. The object of this policy was to remove them from temptation to plant on their own account.[3]
No statute passed by the Assembly during the century shows more clearly the public desire to advance the prosperity of those engaged in mechanical pursuits, than the enactment of 1661-62, exempting tradesmen and handicraftsmen from the payment of levies.[4] This provision extended to all in their employment, subject, however, to the one condition that both the master and servant should devote their time to their trades and should not be interested either in or out of the Colony, directly or indirectly,
- ↑ General Court Orders, March 6, 1631, Robinson Transcripts, p. 97.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 208.
- ↑ Instructions to Wyatt, Colonial Entry Book, vol. 79, pp. 219-236; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1638, p. 48, Va. State Library; Instructions to Berkeley, McDonald Papers, vol. I, p. 386, § 26, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. II, p. 85; see Ibid., p. 307. This was ten years later.
