with other colonies in the New World. Numerous commissions were issued by the Governor in March and April of 1632 authorizing individuals to trade with New England, Nova Scotia, and the Dutch plantation in Hudson's River, as well as with the West Indies. Harvey even gave instructions to Nathaniel Basse, one of the traders and a member of the Council, to encourage people from the other colonies to come to Virginia. "If those of Newe England shall dislike the coldnes of there clymate or the barrenness of the soyle," wrote Harvey, "you may propose unto them the plantinge of Delaware bay, where they shall have what furtherance wee cann afford them, and noe impediment objected against theire owne orders and lawes."

But all was not well in the government of the colony. Harvey found the Council members constantly opposing him, disputing his authority, resisting his attempts to administer equal justice to all men. The royal Governor was not supreme as we now sometimes mistakenly assume. He was first among equals only. Decisions at this time were made by majority vote, and the Governor was frequently outvoted. Moreover the Councilors, who could devote more of their time to their private affairs, tended to be better off financially than the Governor himself, who found it next to impossible to get his salary from the King, and who was forced to entertain at his own expense all who came to James City. Harvey complained that he should be called the "host" rather than the "Governor" of Virginia. In contrast, Samuel Mathews, one of Harvey's enemies on the Council, owned the finest estate in Virginia. William Claiborne, another of Harvey's enemies on the Council, besides a large estate, had a royal commission and English backers for his powerful trading company.

Harvey made every effort to reconcile the differences which arose between him and the Council members, and on December 20, 1631, all signed an agreement promising to work in harmony and to mend their discontent.

Fortified by this agreement, Harvey went forward with his efforts to put Virginia's agricultural economy on a sound basis. The principal problem was to force the planters to diversify. Many tears are shed for the poverty of the planters of Virginia, and their customary indebtedness to English creditors is usually cited as proof of their poverty. But this "poverty" was not based on the inability of the planter to raise enough food to support himself and his family, but on the fluctuations of the market price of the crop—tobacco—to which he had devoted most of his energies as a speculative venture. Strange as it may seem, the planter had to be forced to raise enough food for his own support, so avid was his desire for quick tobacco profits.

Governor Harvey's Assembly of February 1632 directed that every man working in the ground should plant and tend at least two acres of corn per head, on penalty of forfeiture of his entire crop of tobacco. Harvey hoped to make Virginia "the granarie to his Majesty's Empire," as Sicily had been to Rome. Another act allowed corn to be sold for as high a price as could be obtained, contrary to the usual European and colonial habit of fixing prices on basic commodities used by the people. The reason given for this freedom from price fixing was that the precedents of other countries did not apply to America, "for none are so poore heere, as that they may not have as much corne, as they will plant, havinge land enough."

The Assembly of 1632 did, however, fix a price on tobacco, requiring that it not be sold at less than six pence per pound, a law they went to great pains to justify to the King. Tobacco was Virginia's primary economic interest, and the Virginians were willing to go to any lengths to advance that interest. They urged the King not to place any impediment to their "free trade," or right to sell their tobacco wherever they could, and mentioned that they had already constructed several barques and had begun trading with the Dutch plantation on Hudson's River. Governor Harvey asked why the English merchants could not afford to allow them a penny a pound for their tobacco when the Dutch paid eighteen pence per pound.

The English merchants who traded with Virginia formed a tight little group which used its favored position to charge excessive prices for English-made goods, and to give abnormally low prices for Virginia tobacco. Such a policy was not entirely owing to covetousness. The English economy was shackled by a conception of economic life which believed in the necessity of monopolies and restrictive devices of all sorts. The Dutch nation, on the other hand, had thrown off many of the traditional mercantilist restraints on trade. Holland soon enjoyed a level of prosperity that made her the envy of the rest of Europe. Her rivals attributed Dutch success to the energy of her people. "Go to beat the Dutch" became a byword which has persisted to this day. Not until a century later did the English realize that Dutch prosperity was caused not so much by hard work as by the policy of freeing trade from unnecessary restraints. As Dutch prosperity increased, Dutch ships appeared in every sea, underselling all rivals and paying better prices for local products. The complaint that the London merchants allowed only one penny a pound for the Virginians' tobacco while the Dutch gave eighteen strikingly illustrates the measure of Dutch commercial superiority. No wonder that the London merchants should demand that the Dutch be excluded from the Virginia market! For the same reason Virginians, whether Governors, Councilors, Burgesses, or planters, were, throughout the seventeenth century, almost unanimously opposed to the English government's policy of restricting trade with Virginia to English ships and confining that trade to English ports.

Although Governor Harvey supported the Burgesses and Council in their strong defense of tobacco production, he privately wrote that he had not only endeavored to have reduced the amount of tobacco planted "but if it might have been, to have utterly rooted out this stinking commodity." He reported that only the powerful hand of the King and his Council could, however, effect such an end, so "indeared" were the planters to the traffic. Moreover, Harvey admitted that until some more staple commodity could be developed, tobacco could not be prohibited without the utter ruin of the colony. Virginia was rooted to tobacco—seemingly for ever.

The Virginia planters' proposals, of course, met the opposition of the London merchants, who complained to their powerful friends and associates in the government and urged the King and his Council to nullify the restrictions which the Virginians tried to place on the sale of their tobacco. The merchants were particularly opposed to the desire of the Virginians to by-pass them and trade with foreign nations directly.

It is hard for us to realize today the immense importance of merchants and traders in influencing the colonial policies of the English government. Virginia was founded by a commercial company. All the early attempts at settlement were made by private persons who were willing to "adventure" their capital or their skill. Behind the great explorers stood private individuals who risked their money on the success of the voyage or settlement. The "government"—perhaps it would be truer to say the Kings and their advisers—did not have the funds or the foresight to support these ventures. They were perfectly willing to sign papers granting lands they did not own to those who were willing to attempt the settlement, but they were reluctant to put up their own money except on a sure thing.

Once the settlements were functioning, once revenues were patently obvious, the monarchs showed more concern with their government. Merchants still, however, continued to provide the link between the