system: first, order a survey in every
Virginia county of the lands in question; second, demand full payment of
all quitrents in arrears and use legal compulsion to collect them; and
third, limit grants to 500 acres for one man and have them issued on
"more certain terms." Such requirements would produce threefold
advantages to the crown and the colony. They would either bring in
additional revenue by collection of the quitrent; or if payment were not
made, approximately 100,000 acres of land would revert to the King and
could be granted to new settlers. Limitation of grants to 500 acres
would increase the number of planters, make settlements more compact,
and produce more tobacco. And finally, both trade and the customs
collection on tobacco would be enhanced.

Before concluding his report, Randolph acknowledged both the awareness
of the problem and the efforts of correction initiated by Francis
Nicholson while Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia from 1690 to 1692.
Nicholson was

... very sensible of the damage and injustice done to the crown by
their using and conniving at such unwarrantable practices in
granting away the King's lands, and was resolved to reform them by
suing some of the claimers for arrears of quit-rents; but finding
that the Council and many of the Burgesses, among others, were
concerned, and being uncertain of his continuing in the government,
he ordered to begin with Laurence Smyth, who was seised of many
thousand acres of land in different counties, and for one particular
tract of land was indebted L80 for arrears of quit-rents, which sum
after the cause was ripe for judgment, was compounded for less than
one half.

Before the year was out, the Board of Trade sought more information on
this problem and directed a series of searching questions in October,
1696, to Randolph who had then returned to England. Both the questions
and the answers are recorded in the _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial
Series, America and West Indies_, 1696-1697 (pages 172, 188-89). Out of
the ten questions asked, the following seem most significant in
revealing Randolph's evaluation of the Virginia land system.

What proportion of land in Virginia already taken up is now
cultivated as near as you can judge?

There is in Virginia, at a moderate computation, about 500,000 acres
granted by patents, of which not above 40,000 acres are cultivated
and improved;