the
colony was full of indigent persons, who could barely support themselves
with their utmost exertions.[388]

Not only did the act of 1660 depress the price of tobacco, but it
increased the already excessive freight rates. Since the bulk of the
colonial exports had now to be brought directly to England, in English
ships, the masters of Plymouth or London could double or triple their
charges. Simultaneously there occurred a pronounced rise in the cost of
manufactured goods. The far-famed skill of the Dutch workmen had made it
possible for them to produce many articles more cheaply than the
English, and to underbid them in their own colonies. But now that all
foreign goods were excluded, the planters were forced to purchase the
more expensive product of the English workshops.

Thus were the Virginians cut with a two-edged sword. At the very time
that their incomes were being diminished, they were confronted by an
increase in the cost of living. Nor could they, as Lord Baltimore
declared they might, alleviate these evils by industry and thrift. For
the more strenuous were their efforts to increase the tobacco crop, the
greater would be the glut in the English market and the more disastrous
the drop in prices.

The poor colonists found an able, but an unsuccessful advocate, in a
London merchant named John Bland. "If the Hollanders," he wrote in a
paper addressed to the King, "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, ... the Tobacco will not vend in England, the Hollanders
will not fetch it from England; what must become thereof?" But Charles
II, who knew little of economic matters, and cared nothing for the
welfare of the colonists, ignored Bland's convincing appeal. No
alleviation was given Virginia, and she was allowed to drift on through
poverty and desperation to rebellion.

In a vain attempt to make the colony independent of the English
manufacturers and to turn the people from the excessive planting of
tobacco, the Assembly passed a series of acts designed to encourage
local industrial establishments. It was especially desired that Virginia
should make her own cloth, for the cost of the English fabrics was
excessive.[389] To stimulate the art of spinning and weaving the
Assembly offered rewards for the best pieces of linen and woollen goods
produced in the