ngland so greatly
needed. The active supporters of the undertaking were lavish in their
promises. Virginia would yield better and cheaper timber for shipping
than Prussia or Poland, she would furnish potash in abundance, and since
wood could there be had for the cutting, her copper and iron ore could
be smelted on the spot. Wine could be made there, as excellent as that
of the Canaries, they boasted, while it was hoped soon to manufacture
silk rivalling in fineness that of Persia or of Turkey. The waters of
the colony were full of "Sturgion, Caviare and new land fish of the
best," her fields could produce hemp for cordage and flax for linen. As
for pitch, tar, turpentine and boards, there was a certainty of a rich
return.[1-11] In February 1608, the Council of Virginia wrote to the
corporation of Plymouth: "The staple and certain Comodities we have are
Soap-ashes, pitch, tar, dyes of sundry sorts and rich values, timber for
all uses, fishing for sturgeon and divers other sorts ... making of
Glass and Iron, and no improbable hope of richer mines."[1-12]

And no sooner had the infant colony been established than the Company
turned with enthusiasm to the production of these highly desired
commodities. A number of foreigners, Dutchmen and Poles skilled in the
manufacture of ship-stores, were sent over to make a start with pitch,
tar, turpentine and potash. They were to act as instructors, also, and
it was expected that within a few years the Virginia forests would be
filled with workers in these trades. Unfortunately their efforts met
with ill success, and save for a few small samples of pitch and tar
which were sent to England, nothing of value was produced.

For this failure the reason is apparent. All the able economists and
statesmen who had predicted that the colony would become an industrial
center had overlooked one vitally important factor--the lack of cheap
labor. No matter how rich in natural resources, Virginia could not hope
to compete with the long-established industries of Europe and Asia,
because she lacked the abundant population requisite to success. It had
been imagined by Hakluyt and others that the colony could avail herself
of the surplus population of England, could drain off the upper stratum
of the idle and unemployed. What more feasible than to set these men to
work in the forests of the New World to produce the raw materials the
want of which was responsible for unemployment in England itself!

B