The beginning of England's oppressive policy towards the commerce of her colonies must date from 1651, when Parliament passed a stringent Navigation Act, forbidding the importation of any commodities into England or its territories except in English vessels or vessels of the nation that produced the goods.[196] This law was aimed chiefly at the Dutch carrying trade, which was so extensive that it had aroused England's jealousy, but it came as a serious blow to Virginia. A large part of her exports had for many years been transported by the Dutch, and the entire exclusion of the "Hollanders" could not fail to react unfavorably upon her prosperity. The immediate effect, since it relieved the English ship owners of much of the competition with which they had contended, was to raise the cost of transportation.
The Virginians protested strongly. In a speech to the Assembly, Governor Berkeley, fairly foaming with rage, denounced the act. "We," he said, "the Governor, Councell and Burgesses of Virginia, have seene a printed paper ... wherein (with other plantations of America) we are prohibited trade and commerce with all but such as the present power shall allow of: ... we think we can easily find out the cause of this the excluding us the society of nations, which bring us necessaries for what our country produces: And that is the averice of a few interested persons, who endeavour to rob us of all we sweat and labor for."[197]
But the evil was to some extent avoided during the Commonwealth period, owing to constant evasions of the law. There is abundant evidence to show that the Dutch trade, although hampered, was by no means stamped out, and Dutch vessels continued to carry the Virginia tobacco just as they had done during the reign of Charles I. In the year 1657, there was a determined effort to enforce the law, and the advance in the charges of transporting the crop of that year, indicates that this effort was partly successful. The freight rate rose from £4 a ton to £8 or £9, and in some cases to £14.[198]
A more serious blow came in 1660. A bill was passed prescribing that no goods of any description should be imported into or exported from any of the king's territories "in Asia, Africa, or America, in any other than English, Irish, or plantation built ships."[199] It was also required that at least three-fourths of the mariners of these ships should be Englishmen. Moreover, another feature was added to the law which was far more oppressive than the first provision. It was enacted that "no sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, indigo, ginger, justic, and other dying woods, of the growth or manufacture of our Asian, African, or American colonies, shall be shipped from the said colonies to any place but to England, Ireland, or to some other of his Majesty's plantations."
The results of this law were ruinous to Virginia. At one blow it cut off her trade with all countries but England and her colonies, and raised enormously the cost of transportation. Although England was the largest purchaser of tobacco, Holland and other countries had taken a large part of the crop each year. The colonists were now forced to bring all their crop to England, and an immediate glut in the market followed. The English could neither consume the enormously increased supply of tobacco, nor rid themselves of it by exportation to continental countries, and it piled up uselessly in the warehouses. An alarming decline in the price followed, which reacted on the planters to such an extent that it brought many to the verge of ruin. The profit from tobacco was almost entirely wiped out.
The effects of this law are clearly shown in a paper by a London merchant named John Bland, which was presented to the authorities in England, protesting against the injustice done to the colonies. "If," he says, "the Hollanders must not trade to Virginia how shall the planters dispose of their tobacco? the English will not buy it, for what the Hollander carried thence was a sort of tobacco, not desired by any other people, nor used by us in England but merely to transport for Holland. Will it not then perish on the planters' hands?... the tobacco will not vend in England, the Hollanders will not fetch it from England; what must become thereof? even flung to the dunghil."[200]
The people of Virginia were reduced almost to despair. They made desperate efforts to raise the price of their staple product. Communications were entered into with Maryland and North Carolina to restrict the planting of tobacco in order to relieve the overproduction, but negotiations failed, giving rise to much bitterness and contention.[201] Similar proposals were made by Virginia from time to time, but the effort was never successful. In 1664, the whole tobacco crop of Virginia was worth less than £8.15s for each person in the colony. In 1666 a large portion of the crop could not be sold at any price and was left on the hands of the planters.[202]
Moreover, the strict enforcement of the law placing all carrying trade in the hands of Englishmen created a monopoly for the English ship owners, and raised enormously not only the freight rates, but the cost of all imported goods. The planter, while he found his income greatly decreased by the low price of tobacco, was forced to pay more for all manufactured goods. The cost of clothing rose until the colony was almost in nakedness.
At this crisis an attempt was made to turn the energies of the people to manufacture. The Assembly offered rewards for the best pieces of linen and woolen cloth spun in the colony,[203] and put a bounty on the manufacture of silk. A law was passed requiring each county to erect tan-houses, while encouragement was given to a salt works on the Eastern Shore. Bounties were also offered for ship-building. In 1666 a bill was passed making it compulsory for the counties to enter upon the manufacture of cloth. The reading of this act shows that the Assembly understood fully the causes of the distress of the people. It begins: "Whereas the present obstruction of trade and the nakedness of the country doe sufficiently evidence the necessity of providing supply of our wants by improving all means of raysing and promoteing manuffactures amonge ourselves.... Be it enacted by the authority of this grand assembly that within two yeares at furthest after the date of this act, the commissioners of each county court shall provide and sett up a loome and weaver in each of the respective counties."[204]
The corruption and mismanagement that attended these measures made them unsuccessful, and as time went on the planters became more and more impoverished. The Virginians chafed bitterly under the harsh enforcement of the law of 1660. Governor Berkeley when asked by the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations in 1671 what obstructions there were to the improvement of trade and commerce in Virginia, answered with his accustomed vigor, "Mighty and destructive, by that severe act of Parliament which excludes us the having any commerce with any other nation in Europe but our own.... If this were for his majesty's service, or the good of his subjects, we should not repine, whatever our sufferings are for it; but on my soul, it is the contrary of both."[205]