The sums so paid were to be appropriated to
the company for twenty-one years from the date of the patent, and
afterward were transferred to the crown. James never forgot a prospect
for gain, and could not permit the colonists to enjoy forever the customs
which, as consumers of foreign goods, they must necessarily have paid
from their resources.
The jealous policy which at this time forbade the exportation, without
license, of English products to foreign countries, has left its impress
upon this charter. The colonists were, indeed, allowed to import all
"sufficient shipping and furniture of armour, weapons, ordinance, powder,
victual, and all other things necessary," without burdensome restraint;
but it was provided that if any goods should be shipped from England or
her dependencies "with pretence" to carry them to Virginia, and should
afterward be conveyed to foreign ports, the goods there conveyed and the
vessel containing them should be absolutely forfeited to his majesty, his
heirs and successors.
The lands held in the colonies were to be possessed by their holders
under the most favorable species of tenure known to the laws of the
mother-country. King James had never admired the military tenure entailed
upon England by the feudal system, and he had made a praiseworthy though
unsuccessful effort to reduce them all to the form of "free and common
soccage," a mode of holding land afterward carried into full effect under
Charles II, and which, if less pervaded by the knightly spirit of feudal
ages, was more favorable to the holder and more congenial with the
freedom of the English constitution.
Pages:
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602