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₤ 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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