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Nor was it long before the importation and sale of
tobacco required a special license from the king.
1 In this manner, a compromise was effected between the interests of the colonial planters and the monarch; the former obtained the exclusive supply of the
English market, and the latter succeeded in imposing an exorbitant duty.
2 In the ensuing parliament,
Lord Coke did not fail to remind the commons of the usurpations of authority on the part of the monarch, who had taxed the produce of the colonies without the consent of the people, and without an act of the national legislature;
3 and
Sandys, and
Diggs, and
Farrar, the friends of
Virginia, procured the substi-
tution of an act for the arbitrary ordinance.
4 In consequence of the dissensions of the times, the bill, which had passed the house, was left among the unfinished business of the session; nor was the affair adjusted, till, as we have already seen, the commons, in 1624, again expressed their regard for
Virginia by a
petition, to which the monarch readily attempted to give effect.
5
The first colonial measure
6 of King Charles related
to tobacco; and the second proclamation,
7 though its object purported to be the settling of the plantation of
Virginia, partook largely of the same character.
In a series of public acts, King Charles attempted during his reign to procure a revenue from this source.
The authority of the star-chamber was invoked to assist
in filling his exchequer by new and onerous duties
