Tobacco Flashcards
(26 cards)
Nicotiana rustica
Tobacco plant native to North America
Strong and too bitter for English
Nictotiana tabacum
Produced by the Spanish in the south
English trade/colonising activities in the Guianas to fetch seeds
Credited with introduction to Virginia by John Rolfe
Tobacco
Used as a psychoactive substance
Designed to develop spiritual awareness and perceptions of the sacred
Tobacco contract
Contracted Virginia and Bermuda to produce tobacco
Calculated the number of acres each person would be responsible for
Proportions lost in tax
Total production laid out in contract was 300,000 pounds
Price of tobacco could be raised to make a profit
1617 planting
20,000 pounds shipped to England
1618 planting
Nearly 40,000 pounds shipped to England
1618 expansion
Along James River and Shirley Hundreds
Stretched 140 miles along James River, even with 1622 interruption
Post-War
Powhatans cleared land could be changed to tobacco production
Headright to provide labour
1629
Eastern Shore put under cultivation
2000 acres
Unlike Indian gardens
Tobacco monoculture and repeat cropping
Without resting the soil
Took its toll on the production
1632 General Assembly regulated
Limited number of plants per planter to 1500
Limited plants per planter
Increased pressure to expand the land under cultivation
Tobacco in weight (pounds) as a unit of currency and exchange
Taxes (to Virginian authorities)
Tithes (to maintain church)
Purchase of supplies from England
Promissory notes calculated in tobacco
Indentured servants/slaves not paid
Planters shipped tobacco to England
Where agents sold it on their behalf
For a proportion of the profit
Smaller planters used Virginia-based agents who bought their supply and sold manufactured goods
Second half of 17thC affected
Over-supply in Virginia
Disruptions to shipping and markets in England
Goods bought with promissory notes
In weight of tobacco
Meant product had to be of a quality that would sell
1619 all low-quality tobacco
Brought to the Jamestown inspection site destroyed
1623 selected men in each settlement
Decided on the quality of the merchandise
1630 law
Inferior tobacco not acceptable for payment of debt
Anyone caught would forfeit the right to plant tobacco
1633 inspection sites
Had warehouse for storage
E.g Southampton River or James River Falls (this one did NOT have a warehouse)
1639 Act
Appointed 213 inspectors
3 per district
1640 English Parliament
Met for the first time in 11 years
Speech of Sit Thomas Roe: to settle the ground of trade on staple commodities
1651 Navigation legislation
First Navigation Ordinance
