Tom,

The list of truck goods is very helpful. Can you suggest what the value of, 
say some hoes and some scissors and maybe some pretty beads would be in 
baskets of corn?

Having them come to the village would put my work groups of women working in 
the village. I'll have to look back at Roundtree and see what such a 
workgroup would have done around the village - perhaps building a house 
rather than working the fields, or weaving mats.

Thanks for the quote in both languages. I'm not sure I will be using any 
Native American language since I don't enough of it to do it well. In my 
stories, the magical history hat makes language becomes transparent. (a 
fiction writer can do that, a historian cannot <grin>)

Anne










Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Apple" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 10:33 AM
Subject: Re: Native American Culture


> On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:03:31 -0500, Anne Pemberton wrote
>
>> As I think on it, I wonder if the women would have taken the corn to
>> the settlement, or if the settlers would have come to the village to
>> make the trade. If the settlers did the traveling, they may not have
>> thought to bring a shovel, or maybe they did?
>
> Most likely the settlers were going to the villages to trade. Trade at
> Jamestown itself would have been limited to the short intervals of peace 
> they
> had with the closest tribes. Trade for Jamestown was regulated by the 
> Company
> clerk known as the "Cape Merchant."
>
> The cape merchant would set the rate of exchange, and it was illegal for 
> any
> settler to trade without a license from the cape merchant. In the early 
> days,
> most trade situations would have been planned by the Company as it was
> Company property that was being traded. They referred to their trade goods
> as "truck." When you see items listed in inventories prefaced by the
> word "truck" it meant that those items were made specifically for trade.
> Which often means it was made of inferior or cheaper materials.
>
> While shovels are not usually seen listed as trucking goods, various types 
> of
> hoes were. So a trade involving a hoe would be very appropriate and useful 
> to
> the harvesting of tuckahoe.
>
> Whether tools or ornamental items were traded really depended on whether
> those types of items already saturated the village where they were 
> trading.
> Often a trade would proceed after an initial exchange of gifts, what you
> might consider as product samples.
>
> A quote from John Smith providing some dialog from a trade with 
> Pocahontas:
>
> "Kekaten Pokahontas patiaquagh niugh tanks manotyens neet mowchick 
> rawrenock
> aughowgh."
>
> "Bid Pokahontas bring thither two little baskets [of corn?] and I will 
> give
> her white beads to make her a chain."
>
> Some trade goods from a list of a shipment in June 1638 (same type of 
> goods
> used earlier):
>
> 40 yds of cloth at 30"   120 lbs
> 1 peice of cloth cont 30 1/2yds
> 4 small peices of cloth cont 9 3/4yds
> 6 dozen knives at 20 lbs
> knives
> 3 dozen of scissors
> 6 bunches of small white beads;
> 10 bunches of bigger white beads
> 2 bunches of purple beads
> a grosse of bells
> 24 hoes
> 24 axes
>
> 2 lb beads at 06 lbs
> 3 lb other beads 04 lbs
> at 20&#8356; ls 06d
>
> 24 armes length of roanoke.
> The tenth of this truck outward is
> 150 lbs of tobacco: which said summe of
>
> bells 06
> hoes - 12
> axes - 12
> roanoke - 10
>
> 150 lbs of tobacco the said James Neale in behalf of his said mr doth 
> hereby
> acknowledge himselfe to owe unto the Lord Proprietary to be paid on the 
> 10th
> of Novemb next, in case it shall be putt off for beaver; & he doth further
> hereby covenant to pay to the use of the Lord..."
>
> I hope this is helpful.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom A.
>
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