Tobacco in Colonial Virginia Part 3

Instead of attempting to limit production in an effort to relieve the market conditions, these low prices caused the planters to increase production as they attempted to meet their obligations. In 1709 tobacco production reached an all-time high of 29,000,000 pounds.

The Peace of Utrecht in 1713 seems to have brought little relief.

Tobacco prices failed to improve until after the pa.s.sage of the inspection act in 1730. In 1731 tobacco sold for as much as twelve shillings six pence per hundred pounds, despite the fact that Virginia exported 34,000,000 pounds. In a further attempt to improve the quality and the price of tobacco the General a.s.sembly ordered the constables in each district to enforce the law forbidding the planters to harvest suckers. Anyone found tending suckers after the last of July was to be heavily penalized. These two measures seem to have produced the desired effects; in 1736 tobacco sold for fifteen shillings per hundred pounds.

Unlike Queen Anne's War, King George's War seemed to stimulate tobacco prices and they remained relatively good for a number of years after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. During the early 1750's merchants paid up to twenty shillings per hundred pounds, even though Virginia had been exporting from 38,000,000 to 53,000,000 pounds annually.

During the French and Indian War the belligerents agreed to continue the tobacco trade, but in spite of this arrangement there were unusual price fluctuations owing primarily to inflation and occasional poor crops. In 1755 a period of inflation was created when Virginia resorted to the printing press for currency. At the same time war operations hampered production and only about one-half of the usual annual crop was produced, and tobacco prices rose to twenty shillings per hundred weight. During the years of peace just prior to the American Revolution, tobacco averaged about three pence per pound and never fell below two pence. With the outbreak of hostilities the General a.s.sembly prohibited the exportation of tobacco to the British Empire.

Frequent overproduction and the numerous wars during the eighteenth century seem to have caused more violent price fluctuations than those of the previous century. Although the American colonies did not partic.i.p.ate in all of the wars involving England, all of them had their effects upon the colonies. Virginia depended primarily upon England to transport her tobacco crop and during the war years there was a frequent shortage of ships used for the tobacco trade. As this cut off the tobacco supply to the foreign markets, many of them began to grow their supply of tobacco.

The tobacco crops were small almost every year during the Revolution.

Owing to the increase in the demand for foodstuffs many of the planters switched from tobacco to wheat. During the first year of the war tobacco exports dropped from 55,000,000 to 14,500,000 pounds. It has been said that for the entire period 1776-1782 Virginia's exports were less than her exports of a single year before the Revolution. Wartime prices and inflation caused tobacco prices to increase from eighteen shillings per hundred pounds in 1775 to 2,000 shillings, in Continental currency, in 1781. An official account in the latter part of 1780 related that twenty-five shillings per hundred pounds in specie was considered a very substantial price. A very small crop in 1782 was followed by one that topped any of the pre-war crops, and by 1787 prices had fallen to fifteen pence per pound. Prices dropped to $12.00 in 1791, and a period of relatively low prices continued until 1797 when prices increased as a result of an extensive shift from tobacco to wheat. In 1800 prices dropped to $7.40 per hundred pounds as Virginia exported a near record crop of over 78,000 hogsheads of tobacco.

VIRGINIA TOBACCO PRICES AND EXPORTS, 1615-1789

A complete and accurate price table would be virtually impossible to compile. Some of these averages represent only single individual quotations, or the average of only two or three such quotations. These charts are intended to give the reader a general picture of the prices during the Colonial period.

Year Average Price Average Price Pounds Exported per Lb. per Cwt.

1615 3s 2,300 1617 3s 20,000 1618 3s 41,000 1619 3s 44,879 1620 2s 6d 40,000 1621 3s 55,000 1622 3s 60,000 1623 2s 1625 2s 4d 1626 3s 500,000 1628 3s 6d 500,000 1629 1,500,000 1630 1d 1,500,000 1631 6d 1,300,000 1632 6d 1633 9d 1634 1d 1637 9d 1638 2d 1639 3d 1,500,000 1640 12d 1,300,000 1641 2d 1,300,000 1642 2d 1644 1-1/2d 1645 1-1/2d 1649 3d 1651 16s 1652 20s 1655 2d 1656 2d 1657 3d 1658 2d 1659 2d 1660 2d 1661 2d 1662 2d 1664 1-1/2d 1665 1d 1666 1-1/5d 1667 1/2d 1669 20s 1676 1-1/2d 1682 1-1/5d 1683 2d 1684 1/2d 1685 2-1/2d 1686 1-1/5d 1688 18,295,000 1690 1d 1691 2d 1692 1d 1695 1-1/2d 1696 1-1/5d 1697 1/2d 22,000,000 1698 20s 22,000,000 1699 20s 22,000,000 1700 10s average 1701 average 1702 20s 1704 2d 18,000,000 1706 1/4d 1709 1d 29,000,000 1710 1d 1713 3s 1715 2s 1716 11s 1720 1d 1722 3/4d 1723 1d 1724 1-1/2d 1727 9d 1729 10d 1731 12s 6d 34,000,000 1732 9d 34,000,000 1733 2d 34,000,000 1736 2d 34,000,000 1737 9d average 1738 3d average 1739 2d average 1740 34,000,000 1744 2d 47,000,000 1745 14s 38,232,900 1746 2d 36,217,800 1747 37,623,600 1748 16s 8d 42,104,700 1749 2d 43,880,300 1750 15s 43,710,300 1751 16s 43,032,700 1752 2d 43,542,000 1753 20s 53,862,300 1754 45,722,700 1755 2d 42,918,300 1756 20s 25,606,800 1757 3d 1758 3d 22,050,000 1759 35s 55,000,000 1760 55,000,000 1761 22s 6d 55,000,000 1762 11d 55,000,000 1763 2d 55,000,000 1764 12s 6d 55,000,000 1765 3d 55,000,000 1766 4s average 1767 3s 10d average 1768 22s 6d average 1769 23s average 1770 25s average 1771 18s average 1772 20s average 1773 12s 6d average 1774 13s average 1775 3-1/4d 55,000,000 1776 12s 14,498,500 1777 34s 12,441,214 1778 70s 11,961,333 1779 400s 17,155,907 1780 1,000s 17,424,967 1781 2,000s 13,339,168 1782 36s 9,828,244 1783 40s 86,649,333 1784 30s 10d 49,497,000 1785 30s 55,624,000 1786 19d 60,380,000 1787 15d 60,041,000 1788 25s 58,544,000 1789 15d 58,673,000

CONCLUSION

The history of tobacco is the history of Jamestown and of Virginia. No one staple or resource ever played a more significant role in the history of any state or nation. The growth of the Virginia Colony, as it extended beyond the limits of Jamestown, was governed and hastened by the quest for additional virgin soil in which to grow this "golden weed." For years the extension into the interior meant the expansion of tobacco production. Without tobacco the development of Virginia might have been r.e.t.a.r.ded 200 years.

Tobacco was the life and soul of the colony; yet a primitive, but significant, form of diversified farming existed from the very beginning especially among the small farmers. Even with the development of the large plantations in the eighteenth century, there were quite a number of small landowners interspersed among the big planters in the Tidewater area, and they were most numerous in the Piedmont section.

They usually possessed few slaves, if any, and raised mostly grains, vegetables and stock which they could easily sell to neighboring tobacco planters. The negligible food imports by the colony indicates that a regular system of farming existed. Nor was tobacco the sole product of the large tobacco plantations. This is indicated by the fact that practically all of the accounts of the product of one man's labor were recorded as so many pounds or acres of tobacco plus provisions.

And had the plantations not been generally self-sufficient, the frequently extremely low prevailing tobacco prices would have made the agricultural economy even less profitable.

Tobacco was a completely new agricultural product to most, if not all, of the English settlers at Jamestown. There were no centuries of vast experience in growing, curing, and marketing to draw upon. These problems and procedures were worked out by trial and error in the wilderness of Virginia. Tobacco became the only dependable export and the colony was exploited for the benefit of English commerce. This English commercial policy, plus other factors, caused the Virginia planter to become somewhat of an agricultural spendthrift. For nearly 200 years he followed a system of farming which soon exhausted his land. Land was cheap and means of fertilization was limited and laborious. By clearing away the trees he was able to move north, south, southwest, and west and replace his worn-out fields with rich virgin soil necessary to grow the best tobacco.

While struggling with the problems involved in producing an entirely new crop about which they knew little or nothing, the colonists also had to feed themselves, deal with their racial problems, and maintain a stable local government as they continually expanded in a limitless wilderness. Out of all this chaos grew the mother and leader of the American colonies.

Tobacco penetrated the social, political, and economic life of the colony. Ownership of a large tobacco plantation could take one up the social ladder; many of the men responsible for the welfare of the colony were planters, and everything could be paid for in tobacco. In 1620 the indentured servants were paid for with tobacco, the young women sent to the colonists to become wives were purchased by paying their transportation charges with tobacco. The wages of soldiers and the salaries of clergymen and governmental officials were paid in tobacco. After 1730 tobacco notes, that is warehouse receipts, representing a certain amount of money, served as currency for the colony.

The development of the inspection system with its chain of tobacco warehouses hastened urbanization. Around many of these warehouses grew villages and settlements; some of these eventually became towns and cities. Richmond, Petersburg, Danville, Fredericksburg, Farmville, Clarksville and others were once merely convenient landings or locations for tobacco warehouses. Even today the fragrant aroma of cured tobacco still exists in a number of these places during the tobacco marketing season. The tobacco trade was largely responsible for the birth and growth of Alexandria, Dumfries, and Norfolk into important export-import centers. For her birth, growth, and colonial leadership, Virginia pays her respect to John Rolfe and the other brave settlers at Jamestown.

Tobacco is still a vital factor in Virginia's economy. Of approximately 2,000,000 acres of cropland (pastureland excluded) in 1949, 115,400 were planted in tobacco which produced 124,904,000 pounds valued at $55,120,800 or twenty-three percent of the total value of all agricultural crops. Of the four largest agricultural products--poultry, tobacco, meat animals, and milk--tobacco ranked second only to poultry in terms of income in 1955. Poultry produced an income of $99,935,000, tobacco $84,128,000, meat animals $80,564,000, and milk $70,681,000.

Peanuts and fruits were tied for fifth place, each producing an income of about $21,000,000.

Of the many different industries in Virginia today only five--food, textile, wearing apparel, chemical, and the manufacture of transportation equipment--employ more workers than the tobacco manufacturers. In 1953 a total of $40,000,000, in salaries and wages, was paid to production workers in the tobacco manufacturing industry in Virginia.

Although tobacco is no longer "king" in the Old Dominion, Virginia farmers produce enough of the "golden weed" each year to make one long cigarette that would stretch around the world fifty times.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This is to acknowledge the sources for the following ill.u.s.trations: Methods of Transporting Tobacco to Market and Plantation Tobacco Houses and Public Warehouses--William Tatham, _An Historical and Practical Essay on the Culture and Commerce of Tobacco_, London, 1800; An Old Tobacco Warehouse--courtesy of Mrs. H. I. Worthington, Directress of the Ralph Wormeley Branch of the a.s.sociation for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, Syringa, Virginia; Tobacco cultivated by the Indians and Tobacco imported from the West Indies--these two pictures were reproduced by permission of George Arents and courtesy of the Virginia State Library. The pictures were found originally in _Tobacco; Its History Ill.u.s.trated by the Books, Ma.n.u.scripts and Engravings in the Library of George Arents, Jr., together with an Introductory Essay, a Glossary and Bibliographic Notes_, by Jerome E. Brooks, Volume 1, (The Rosenbach Company, New York, 1937). However, the two pictures in this pamphlet were reproduced from _Virginia Cavalcade_, by courtesy of the Virginia State Library.

I am also grateful to Dr. E. G. Swem for his critical reading of the ma.n.u.script and his helpful suggestions, and to my wife for her proficient typing of the ma.n.u.script.

G. M. H.