[347:A] Hening, iii. 123, 241, 356: Catalogue of William and Mary College.
[347:B] Anderson's Hist. of Church of England in the Colonies, second ed., iii. 108.
CHAPTER XLIII.
1696-1698.
State and Condition of Virginia—Exhausting Agriculture—Depression of Mechanic Art—Merchants—Current Coin—Grants of Land—Powers of Governor—The Council—Court of Claims—County Courts—General Court—Secretary, Sheriffs, Collectors, and Vestries—Revenue—The Church.
The following statistical account of Virginia appears to have been reported by Lord Culpepper, in 1781, to the Committee of the colonies. It is to be found in the Historical Collections of Massachusetts,[349:A] the manuscript having been communicated by Carter B. Harrison, Esq., of Virginia, by the hands of the Rev. John Jones Spooner, corresponding member. The picture is harsh, but drawn by a vigorous hand, without fear, favor, or affection.
In point of natural advantages Virginia was surpassed by few countries on the globe, but in commerce, manufactures, education, government in church and state, was one of the poorest and most miserable. The staple tobacco swallowed up every thing, so that the markets were often glutted with bad tobacco, which became a mere drug, and would not pay freight and customs. Perhaps not one hundredth part of the land was yet cleared, and none of the marsh or swamp drained. As fast as the soil was worn out by exhausting crops of tobacco and corn, it was left to grow up again in woods. The plough was not much used, in the first clearing the roots and stumps being left, and the ground tilled only with hoes, and by the time the stumps were decayed the ground was worn out. Manure was neglected. Of grain the planters usually raised only enough for home consumption, there being no market for it, and scarce any money. But their main labor in this crop being in the summer, they fell into habits of indolence for the rest of the year. The circumstances of the country, destitute of towns, and consisting of dispersed plantations, were unfavorable for mechanics, then called tradesmen. The depression of this useful and important class although lessened, continues in the present day, and appears to be inevitably connected with the system of negro slavery. It is a tax paid by the whites for the elevation of the black race. The merchants were the most prosperous class in the colony, but they labored under great disadvantages, being obliged to sell on credit, and to carry on "a pitiful retail trade," and to depend on the receivers who went about among the planters to receive the tobacco due, and this mode of collecting was subject to great delays and losses. The native-born Virginians, who for the most part had never been out of the colony, were averse to town life, and felt dissatisfied, like Daniel Boone in more modern times, whenever "the settlements became too thick." The scarcity of money was aggravated by the governor, who found it to his interest to be paid in tobacco. The current coin of the dominion of Virginia consisted of pieces of eight, the value of which was fixed by law at five shillings; and the value being made greater in Pennsylvania money, they were consequently drained from Virginia, as at the present day gold and silver are ostracised by a depreciated paper currency.
The method of settling the colonial territory was by the king's grant of fifty acres to every actual settler, but this rule was evaded and perverted in various ways, and rights for that quantity of land could easily be purchased from the clerks in the secretary's office at from one to five shillings each. The powers of the governor were extensive; he was a sort of viceroy, being commander-in-chief and vice-admiral, lord treasurer in issuing warrants for the paying of moneys, lord chancellor or lord keeper as passing grants under the colony's seal, president of the council, chief justice of the courts, with some powers of a bishop or ordinary. The governors managed to evade the king's instructions, and by official patronage to silence the opposition of the council, and even to hold the burgesses in check. The governor and councillors were all colonels and honorable, and their adherents monopolized the offices. The governor's salary was for many years one thousand pounds per annum, to which the assembly added perquisites, amounting to five hundred more, and a further addition of two hundred pounds was made to Sir William Berkley's salary, making the whole salary seventeen hundred pounds. The council, in effect the creatures and clients of the governor, being appointed at his nomination, and receiving office and place from him, had the powers of council of state, (in case of vacancy of the governor the oldest of them ex officio acting as president ad interim,) of upper house of assembly or house of lords, in the general court of supreme judges, and as colonels, answering to the English lord-lieutenants of counties. The councillors were also naval officers in the customs department, collectors of the revenue, farmers of the king's quit-rents; out of the council were chosen the secretary, auditor, and escheators; the councillors were exempt from arrests, and had a compensation of three hundred and fifty pounds divided among them, according to their attendance. They met together after the manner of the king and council. Their clerk received fifty pounds per annum salary, besides perquisites. The office of collector, held by members of the council, was indeed incompatible with their office of judge, and their office of councillor unfitted them for auditing their own accounts as collectors, and in different capacities they both bought and sold the royal quit-rents.[351:A]
