gigantic sum of $1,580,299,000 from taxes on various tobacco products. Of this vast total, Virginia tobacco manufacturers that year contributed 356,867,000 dollars. Municipal and other local taxes are not included in these figures.

Tobacco culture in America was a highly profitable enterprise for England. The colonists produced and sold the raw product. Very little tobacco is used in the raw state. Before tobacco is ready for the market it must be processed into the various forms demanded by the trade. It was estimated that one man engaged in tobacco growing in Virginia kept three Englishmen employed, that is, sailors engaged in transportation, processors and tradesmen. The English government also derived considerable revenue on the surplus tobacco products resold on the European market.

Tobacco Became Money

One of the needs of the colony was a medium of exchange: something that could be used for money. As the balance of trade was heavily in favor of the Mother Country, there was no opportunity for an accumulation of English money in America. So tobacco became acceptable for goods, services, and the payment of debts. Salaries were fixed in pounds of tobacco.

Fluctuating Prices

The value placed on tobacco in England varied with the supply and demand. With the introduction of Negroes in 1619, and the greatly increased immigration from England, the acreage devoted to the culture of tobacco expanded rapidly. The first serious effects of over-production occurred in 1630, when the price fell from three shillings, six pence to one penny a pound. This calamity proved to be a blessing in disguise. The next year, a boat of "18 tons burden," loaded with corn and tobacco disposed of its cargo at Salem, Massachusetts, then but recently settled. The corn brought six shillings a bushel. This started a brisk trade and a Dutch ship, in 1632, took 2,000 bushels of corn from Virginia to New England. In 1633, it was estimated that 10,000 bushels of corn from Virginia were sold in Massachusetts besides a number of beef cattle, goats, and hogs. In spite of the ruinously low prices which sometimes prevailed, the amount of tobacco shipped overseas continued to increase. In 1639, 1,500,000 pounds were exported from Virginia alone.

Growth of the Colony

Captain John Smith summarized the condition of the colony in 1629 in these words:

Starving times as a rule were over. Periods of short rations occurred infrequently and then only in times of disaster such as the aftermath of the Indian massacre of 1622 or when the planters became so engrossed in growing tobacco that they neglected to plant maize or other grains. Each succeeding crop was new wealth, something that had not existed before. Gradually, harvest after harvest, the colonists were able to add to their possessions additional tools and equipment.

He was a shiftless man indeed who could not provide ample food for his own needs. The history of Virginia during colonial times was intimately connected with the tobacco crop. The general welfare of the people rose and fell with the value placed on the leaf in England.

Efforts to Sustain Higher Prices

With the over supply of tobacco the English market became extremely discriminating in regard to the quality of the leaf it would purchase. The colonial government from time to time resorted to legislative expedients to prevent the shipment of inferior grades. Governor Wyatt, in 1621 ordered that "for every head they should plant but 1,000 plants of tobacco and upon each plant nine leaves." John Rolfe also stated, in 1619, that, "An industrious man not otherwaies imploied may well tend foure akers of corne, and 1,000 plants of tobacco." A thousand plants would give each worker about 112 pounds of tobacco a year. In 1628, an inspection law was enacted and in 1640, it was ordered that all bad tobacco and half the good should be destroyed.

Governor Berkeley, in 1664, made several ineffectual attempts to form agreements, with the planters of Maryland and North Carolina, to restrict the production of tobacco. The planters of each colony were willing for those of the other to stop planting, or to destroy as much tobacco as they pleased; but looking to their own selfish interests they would increase rather than decrease their crop. The Virginia General Assembly, in 1666, prohibited all culture of tobacco but the Maryland authorities complained that the law was ignored by the Virginia planters.

The Virginia colonists developed a keen rivalry among themselves in efforts to improve the quality of the leaf grown. Reverend John Clayton, in 1688, says: "For there is not only two distinct sorts of sweet-scented and Aranoko tobacco but of these be several sorts, much different, the seeds whereof are known by distinct names, of those gentlemen most famed for such sort of tobacco, as of prior seed etc."

The Aranoko, probably from the Orinoco river region in South America, was grown on the heavy clay soils. The product was a strong tobacco that was most in demand in Germany and other North European countries. The sweet-scented was grown on the lighter sandy soils and although the yield was less it brought a better price on the market. Hugh Jones, in his Present State of Virginia, in 1724, mentions one of the many localities in Virginia which became noted for a particular variety of tobacco grown there. To quote: "For on York River in a small tract of land called Digges Neck, which is poorer than a great deal of other land in the same latitude, by a particular seed and management, is made the famous crop known by the name of E Dees, remarkable for its mild taste and fine smell."

Topping the growing tobacco plants was a practice originated by the colonists. The main purpose was to limit the production to the large lower leaves and to do away with the small immature leaves at the top of the stem. The General Assembly often specified the number of leaves which could be left; the number, varying with the value placed on the leaf in England, ranged usually from six to nine.

Tobacco is a soil exhausting crop. The Jamestown planters soon learned that continuous crops of tobacco, on the same land, soon reduced both the quantity and quality of the leaf. The only resource left to the tobacco farmers was to clear new fields. The more well-to-do planters began to seek favorable locations of uncleared land. The depleted fields were abandoned and the task of restoring their productivity was usually left to nature. Much of the best tobacco soils of Virginia have been cropped and then allowed to go back to brush and tress and again cleared several times. Finding the remains of old tobacco rows out in dense woods is not an uncommon experience. This exhaustion of tobacco lands had a beneficial influence on the agricultural development of Virginia. By the time the fields were abandoned, most of the stumps had decayed and the soil could be prepared for seeding to other crops with plow and harrows. It was found that these depleted fields were still capable of producing satisfactory crops of grain. Many of the colonists who were not financially able to clear new grounds could often buy