If a great planter and particularly if situated upon navigable water,
this last was the course he was apt to follow. He would have his own
wharf to which once or twice a year a ship would come bringing the
supplies he had ordered months before and taking away the great staple.
If brought from a distance, the tobacco was rarely hauled to the wharf
in wagons--the roads were too wretched for that--instead it was packed
in a great cylindrical hogshead through which an iron or wooden axle was
put. Horses or oxen were then hitched to the axle and the hogshead was
rolled to its destination.

By the ship that took away his tobacco the planter sent to the English
factor a list of the goods he would require for the next year. It was an
unsatisfactory way of doing business, for time and distance conspired to
put the planter at the factor's mercy. The planter was not only unlikely
to obtain a fair price for his product, but he had to pay excessive
prices for poor goods and besides could never be certain that his order
would be properly filled.

Washington's experiences with his English agents were probably fairly
typical. Near the close of 1759 he complained that Thomas Knox of
Bristol had failed to send him various things ordered, such as half a
dozen scythes and stones, curry combs and brushes, weeding and grubbing
hoes, and axes, and that now he must buy them in America at exorbitant
prices. Not long afterward he wrote again: "I have received my goods
from the Recovery, and cant help again complaining of the little care
taken in the purchase: Besides leaving out half and the most material
half too! of the Articles I sent for, I find the Sein is without Leads,
corks and Ropes which renders it useless--the crate of stone ware don't
contain a third of the Pieces I am charged with, and only two things