I hope to return, before the summer is out, with more information about the exodus from Austria, but, for the present, I will drop the subject.
One other small item in the May issue of Beyond Germanna was a fuller report by William Byrd on events in Virginia. He had been living in England for a few years, and, about 1720, he was sent back to Virginia with instructions for Lt. Gov. Spotswood, Byrd himself, and the Council to patch up their quarrels and to stop arguing. The alternative was that they would lose their jobs. Byrd succeeded quite well and returned to England, where he gave a report to the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations.
The information is a copy from the original minute book which is a summary of the actions their Lordships took. The Commissioners were very interested in the naval stores program, for which premiums were paid to encourage production in the colonies. This had been a very high priority program with the King and Parliament. The Commissioners, who were responsible for the execution of the program, wanted to know how the naval stores program was going in Virginia. Byrd answered questions pertaining to hemp, pitch, and tar. (Spotswood imported the Second Colony Germans to provide the labor in such a program.)
The Commissioners asked about lumber being shipped directly to Portugal or to the Mediterranean. Byrd denied any knowledge of such shipments from Virginia, though he had heard that the northern colonies sometimes did. (The objection by the Commissioners was to bypassing England in this trade.)
As to iron, Byrd said (in November of 1721) that Alexander Spotswood had "a good work" where he could produce cast iron, though he could not yet make bar iron (from the comments of others, the furnace was having problems). He did not see that the ability to produce bar iron was important to the colonies, and he thought they would be content with casting iron. Again, this is the question of trade and where finished products could be made. England wanted to reserve the production of finished goods to herself. So this was an attempt by Byrd to allay the fears of the Commissioners that Virginia would be upsetting the trade laws.
All laws passed in Virginia were subject to review in England. Many times, traders in England objected to a Virginia law, and it was overturned. The example that I like the best was the law passed in Virginia, stating that convicts could not be shipped to Virginia. A merchant in England protested against the law on the grounds that he had a contract with the government of England to transport convicts to Virginia, and if the law were upheld he could not fulfill his contract. The law was denied.
Spotswood was in the position that he had to be sure that he would not upset anyone by his iron production. He had already been warned once by the Commissioners.
(03 May 01)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.