The first activity for which Spotswood had high hopes for providing an independent income was silver. Even before the Germans had left, but not by much, he had invested, as a quarter owner, in land that was thought to contain silver. Because he and his partners could not be sure of the percentage of the silver that would be theirs if silver were found, he worked with Col. Nathaniel Blakiston in London, who was the agent for Virginia. It was Blakiston, working with Graffenried and the Germans, that sent the Germans on to Virginia, partially at Spotswood’s expense.
Spotswood had a fort built at Germanna at the expense of the government. The rationale for this was that the Germans would be a buffer between the English and the Indians. It went unmentioned that a few miles away was the land where it was hoped there would be silver. Because the percentage of silver that finders could keep was never defined, the silver mining activity was more of a hope than any actual activity. It does appear that Spotswood finally let the Germans work the ores starting in the Spring of 1716. By the Fall of 1716, it was becoming evident that there was no silver.
Spotswood never earned a farthing from silver, while his personal expenses probably did not greatly exceed the 150 pounds Sterling that he had paid on the German’s transportation. In the process, over a few years, he did patent about 6,000 acres around Germanna. Apparently, he planned to lease this to the Germans, and he did give the excuse that the second half of this land was taken up for the benefit of the Germans. The land more than paid for the transportation costs of the Germans.
Before he had written off the silver mine(s), he started the second of his retirement plans. He had observed the chaotic nature of Indian trading. Earlier, this had been very profitable to number of people, especially to the Byrd family, where William Byrd’s father had been very successful. As time went by, the trade became very chaotic as many people entered the business, many of them consisting of just one or two people. They had a difficult time making a profit, as they had little bargaining power in London where they bought their trading goods, and where they sold their furs. They had to "cheat" the Indians in order to make a profit.
Spotswood envisioned that a legal monopoly could have an easier time wherein the Indians would be treated more fairly. The Colony of Virginia passed legislation creating the Virginia Indian Trading Company which was to be privately owned. Spotswood became an investor in this, as did some of his relatives who were probably stand-ins for him. Even though Spotswood and his partners were aware that the legislation creating the Trading Company would have to be approved in London, they went ahead with their plans before this approval was obtained. The company was to be located at Christanna, where a fort, somewhat more substantial than Fort Germanna, was built. Christanna was almost at the North Carolina border, about due south of the future town of Richmond.
(25 Jul 05)
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.