nies shall desire to ship his tobacco or goods for England, that
the traders from England to Virginia and Maryland shall let them have
freight in their ships at as low and cheap rates, as they used to have
when the Hollanders and other nations traded thither."

Bland, of course, did not expect these suggestions to be followed, but
he did hope that the evils that he so clearly pointed out would be
done away with by the repeal of the act. So far from heeding him,
however, Parliament passed another bill, in 1673, taking away the last
vestige of freedom of trade. The colonists, when the Navigation Acts
began to be strictly enforced, in seeking an outlet for their
commodities turned to each other, and a considerable traffic had
sprung up between them. The New Englanders, tempted by the high price
of manufactured goods in the south, were competing with Englishmen for
the market of the tobacco raising colonies. The British merchants
brought pressure to bear on Parliament, and a law was passed
subjecting all goods that entered into competition with English
commodities to a duty equivalent to that imposed on their consumption
in England. This act crippled the new trade and deprived Virginia of
even this slight amelioration of her pitiful condition.

The decline in the price of tobacco and the increased cost of
manufactured goods bore with telling effect on the small farmers. It
was customary for them to sow the greater part of their fields with
tobacco, and the enormous decline in the price of that plant brought
many to the verge of ruin. Whenever the overproduction was so great
that the English traders left part of the crop in Virginia, it was the
planter of the middle class that was apt to suffer most, for the
merchants could not afford to affront the wealthy and influential men
of the colony, by refusing to transport their crops. Had it not been
for the ease with which the common people could obtain support from
Indian corn and from their hogs and cattle, many might have perished
during these years.

But, in addition to the causes of distress that were brought about by
the unjust policy of England, there were forces at work within the
colony, that were scarcely less potent for harm. Chief among these was
the attempt of Governor William Berkeley to make his government
independent of the people. Berkeley had, during the reign of Charles
I, made a good governor, and had won the respect of the people, but as
he became old ther