ts in Virginia, no matter what laws were
enacted. In 1701 a pamphlet was published entitled, "A Plain and
Friendly Perswasive to the Inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland for
promoting Towns and Cohabitation." The author tried to prove that
towns would be an unmixed blessing to the colony, that they would
promote trade, stimulate immigration, build up manufacture and aid
education and religion.[57] A similar pamphlet, called Virginia's
Cure, had been written in 1661, complaining that the scattered mode of
life was the cause of the decline of religion in Virginia and
advocating the building of towns.

This lack of urban life reacted strongly upon the plantations. Since
there were no centers of activity in the colony where the planters
could gather on occasions of universal interest, it tended to isolate
them upon their estates. It forced them to become, except for their
trade with England, self-sustaining little communities. As there were
no towns to act as markets there was almost no trade between the
various parts of the colony. During the 17th century a stranger in
Virginia desiring to purchase any article whatever, could only obtain
it by applying at some plantation. Nowhere else in the colony could it
be had. The Friendly Perswasive dwelt especially on the evils of this
state of affairs. "And as to a home-trade," it says, "by towns, all
plantations far or near, would have some trade, less or more, to these
towns, and a frequent trade, and traffic, would soon grow and arise
between the several rivers and towns, by carrying and transporting
passengers and goods to and fro; and supplying all places with such
goods as they want most." Not until the end of the century was there
even the beginning of home trade. Then it was that Williamsburg,
Norfolk and Hampton, still mere villages, enjoyed a slight trade with
the surrounding plantations.

This state of affairs made necessary the system of plantation
manufacture. Those articles whose nature made importation from Europe
inconvenient were produced upon the plantations, and not in the towns
of the colony. It had been the purpose of the Virginia Company of
London to make the colony an industrial community and with this in
view they had so encouraged the immigration of tradesmen and artisans,
that between the years 1619 and 1624 hundreds of carpenters, smiths,
coopers, bricklayers, etc., settled in Virginia. These men soon found,
however, that they could not maintain themsel