es were never "habitable, but fell down
before the finishing of them."

Equally futile was the attempt to turn the people from raising tobacco
to the production of manufactured goods. After the expenditure of
large sums on industrial plants, "for want of care the said houses
were never finished ... and the ... manufactury wholly in a short time
neglected and no good effected." Bacon's rebellious men denounced
Berkeley's parasites "for having upon specious pretences of public
works raised great unjust taxes upon the commonalty for the
advancement of private favorites and other sinister ends, but no
visible effects in any measure adequate."

Berkeley denied the charges of favoritism and misgovernment. He called
on God to witness that he knew of nothing in which he had not
distributed equal justice to all men. His friends rallied to his
support. "The whole are sensible of his great integrity, constant
care, and diligence," the Council wrote to the Lords of Trade. Bacon
had loaded him with all the base calumnies and scandals, and with as
much malice and ingratitude as all the black devils in hell could
tempt him to. It was hard indeed that so good a governor should have
his honor and reputation "ravished away" in his old age.

Though we may discount the testimony of those who had been partners
with Berkeley in his misgovernment, it is clear that he was in no way
responsible for the chief cause of poverty in the colony--the
Navigation Acts. Prior to 1660 the Virginians carried on an extensive
trade with Holland, selling their tobacco to Dutch merchants and
taking Dutch manufactured goods in exchange. When the tobacco reached
Holland it was "manufactured" and then distributed to other countries.
This trade brought prosperity to the colony, for the Dutch paid well
for the tobacco and sold their goods cheaply. But the Navigation Acts
required that tobacco exported from the colonies must be shipped to
England or to her dominions, and that manufactured goods imported must
come from England.

The result was disastrous. England was not able by herself to consume
the entire crop. Nor could the merchants re-export it to the continent
because they did not have access to the markets. So the tobacco piled
up in the English warehouses, while the price sank lower and lower.
The Dutch had given three pence a pound for tobacco, but now the crop
was sold at half a penny a pound. Formerly the poor planter who raised
a thousand pounds of