Tobacco,
A plant so called by the natives of
Haiti, or
Santo Domingo.
It played an important part in the early history of
Virginia, and was found there under cultivation by the natives by the first adventurers sent by
Raleigh, and by them introduced into
England, where its use rapidly increased.
Ralph Lane and his companions, who went back to
England from
Virginia, with
Sir Francis Drake, carried with them the first tobacco seen in that country, and Sir Walter introduced it to the
Queen and the nobility.
When the
English became seated at
Jamestown, they began its cultivation, and it soon became the staple agricultural product of the colony, and their chief source of revenue.
Within less than ten years it became the standard currency of the colonies, by the price of which values were regulated.
The standard price was about 66 cents a pound.
For the seven years ending in 1621, the annual exportation of tobacco to
England from
Virginia averaged about 143,000 lbs. King James tried to suppress its inordinate use, and wrote
A. Counter-blast to tobacco; and in May, 1621, Parliament passed a bill for that purpose, by which no tobacco was allowed to be imported into
England except from Virginia and the
Somers Isles (Bermudas), and none was allowed to be planted in
England.
It was also subject to a crown duty of 6d. per pound.
In 1624 the
King forbade by proclamation its cultivation except in Virginia and the
Somers Isles.
Finally, by relaxing restrictions, it became a source of large revenue to
England, amounting in 1676 to $775,000. In 1680 it had fallen in price to a penny a pound, and the colonists were not able to buy common necessaries.
They petitioned for permission to resort to an old plan for reducing production and so raising the price by a cessation of crops for a year or two.
The inhabitants of several counties signed a petition to the governor to call a special session of the Assembly for that purpose.
The governor, alarmed by symptoms of a new rebellion, did so (April 18); but that body proceeded no further than to petition the
King to order a “stint,” or “cessation,” in
Virginia,
Maryland, and Carolina.
The disappointed planters assembled, and in a riotous manner cut up the tobacco-plants extensively.
They were prosecuted.
Several of them were found guilty, and, under advice from
England, some of them were executed — not for the act of cutting the plants alone, but for a, violation of a colonial act which pronounced the assembling of eight or more persons to destroy crops of any kind to be high treason.
It was afterwards cultivated in other
English-American colonies, and at the middle of the last century there were exported to
England in three years 40,000,000 lbs., of which about onehalf was re-exported and the remainder consumed in
England.
The following shows the production in pounds of
manufactured tobacco in the
United States in the calendar year 1899:
| Chewing, smoking, and snuff | 286,453,738 |
| Cigars and cigarettes | 106,855,521 |
| Exports, domestic | 346,823,677 |
| Exports, foreign | 1,847,637 |
| —————— |
| Total | 741,980.57l6 |
| Less imports | 17,107,839 |
| ————— |
| Net | 724,872,737 |
