The Virginians, like the peoples of the other colonies, were angered at the passage of the Molasses Act, which placed prohibitive duties on the trade between the British colonies on the American continent and the foreign West Indies. Virginia's stake in the trade to the French and Spanish islands was much less than that of New England, but it was great enough to draw a protest from Gooch. And the good Governor seems to have winked at the violations of the act. In 1734 he wrote the Lords of Trade: "As to trade, upon the strictest inquiry I can make I can find none ... but with Great Britain, the British islands in the West Indies, and the island of Madeira."[29] The Board might well have asked why it was, if this were true, that so many Spanish pieces of eight and so many pistoles and French guineas and crowns were circulating in the colony. Even more serious than the conflict between planters and merchants over the restrictions of trade, was the quarrel over debts. The trade with Great Britain was carried on chiefly by credit, and in times when the price of tobacco was high and profits good the planters lived well and spent freely. Then it was that they made heavy purchases of silverware, handsome furniture, or even blooded horses. And only too often, when prices of tobacco fell, they could not bring themselves to curtail expenditures in proportion. In fact, when they placed their orders they could not foresee just what their year's crop would yield. Many of them became involved in debt. When they could not meet their obligations, the merchants demanded that their lands be forfeited. On the other hand, the planters, from time to time, tried to lessen the burden by paying their creditors in depreciated paper money. When the merchants appealed to the Virginia courts to force payment of debts they found them usually sympathetic with the debtors. Moreover, in most cases they could not appeal to the British courts for there was a law forbidding it in cases involving less than L300. For larger suits the shoe was on the other foot, for when they were taken before the Privy Council, the advantage was all with the merchants. Residing in Great Britain, most of them in London, they could appeal in person to present their cause. Since the prosperity of the kingdom was so dependent upon its commerce, they always received a sympathetic hearing. Typical was the suit of the executors of Micajah and Richard Perry to recover debts from the estate of Colonel William Randolph, who had had a long-standing account with them. When the Virginia courts decided in favor of the defendants, the executors of the Perrys appealed to the King. The Privy Council referred the matter to a commission of four merchants, three of whom gave it as their judgment that with compound interest and insurance charges the defendants owed L2,460. So the verdict of the Virginia court was reversed.