settlers, including
140,000 slaves, in Virginia. Pennsylvania, the next largest colony, had
200,000 residents. If the past was any indication, the numbers of
Virginians surely would multiply. In 1720 there were 88,000 colonists
in Virginia, 26,000 of whom were black. The years between 1720 and 1750
had been very fruitful ones and were to be remembered as "the Golden
Age" of Colonial Virginia. Virginia and Maryland were ideal colonies
for the British. The Chesapeake colonies produced a raw material
(tobacco) which the British sold to European customers, and they bought
vast quantities of finished products from craftsmen and manufacturers
in the mother country. These were years when the English mercantile
system worked well. There was lax enforcement of the Navigation Acts,
liberal credit from English and Scots merchants, generous land grants
from the crown, a minimum of interference in Virginia's government, and
peace within the empire. Both mother country and colony were happy with
the arrangement. With peace would come a renewal of those "good old
days." Or so Virginians thought. But it was not to be so.

It is never possible to return to the status quo ante bellum. It would
not be possible for Great Britain to do it in 1763. The British ended
the Seven Years War (the French and Indian War 1756 became a general
world war) as the dominant country in Europe, triumphant over France in
India, the West Indies, and North America, and owners of Spanish
Florida. Yet victory had its price and its problems. The wars had to be
paid for; a policy for governing the new territories had to be
formulated; the Indian tribes beyond the Appalachians had to be
pacified and protected; and Britain had to remain "at the ready" to
defend her newly-won position of power.

Neither France, nor Spain, was about to give in easily. The French,
particularly, were awaiting the chance to challenge the British. For
that reason, the Peace of Paris was only a truce in a series of wars
which began in the 1740's and did not end until the defeat of Napoleon
in 1814. The eager French support of the American Revolution was based
on more than the attraction of young aristocrats like Lafayette to the
republican ideals of a war for independence. French self-interest and
revenge also were heavily involved.

The foremost task facing Britain was meeting the costs of victory. To
gain and maintain the new empire cost great sums of money which the
crown knew it co