its report on these objections, which were submitted for a decision, expressed the warmest approval of the regulation itself, but recommended its temporary suspension for the reason that the public storehouse at Jamestown had fallen into ruin and the private storehouses were too few in number to furnish room for the goods landed by the merchants. It was recommended in addition that the Governor should encourage citizens of the Colony to build warehouses for the purpose of renting them to members of this class.[1] The authorities in Virginia appear to have disregarded this order suspending the law, because they were irritated, partly by the insolence of the shipmasters, who openly boasted of their power to do away with any regulation which obstructed their freedom in trading, and partly by a desire to prevent forestalling. Commenting on the report of the sub-committee, the Governor and Council declared that there was but one way of encouraging the building of towns, namely, by confining the local trade to certain points, as this would compel merchants and mechanics to establish themselves there in pursuit of their special branches of business. The order of the Lords Commissioners suspending the requirement that all ships should proceed to Jamestown until store-houses had been erected at that place, had, it was claimed by the Governor and Council, a disheartening effect upon many persons who had determined to build there. The order was wholly unnecessary, inasmuch as there was a sufficient number of stores for the protection and shelter of all goods brought in.[2]
- ↑ Report of Sub-Committee for Foreign Plantations, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. IX, No. 122; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1688, p. 29, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Governor Harvey and Council to Privy Council, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. X, No. 5; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1638, pp. 50-57, Va. State Library.
