352 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



tobacco which is brought in, and determine its quality.* 

 The damaged or bad is condemned and burnt ; but 

 that which is good and fit for sale is taken in and 

 stored, and the owner is given a certificate or note 

 showing the weight and the quality of the tobacco 

 delivered. The planter sells this tobacco-note to any- 

 body he pleases, without showing samples of his tobacco, 

 and the purchaser, even if many miles distant, pays 

 the stipulated price without having seen the tobacco, 

 the inspectors being answerable for the quantity and 

 quality by them stated. The merchants take these 

 notes in cash payment for the goods which the planters 

 get from them ; they are counted as hard money 

 throughout the province, and for that reason are often 

 tampered with, of which there have been recently 3-4 

 instances : however, the management is such that the 

 cheat cannot stand or go long undiscovered. By this 

 excellent and convenient regulation it was the case 

 even under the British rule that in Maryland and 

 Virginia no paper-money was necessary, without 

 which, as early as that, the other provinces could carry 

 on no internal trade. The Acts of Assembly contain 

 many long-drawn laws touching this branch of trade, 

 the ordering of the warehouses, oversight, inspection, 

 and export of tobacco. 



* The Maryland and Virginia tobacco-planters distinguish 

 between several varieties of tobacco, according to the growth: 

 as Long-green, Thick-joint, Brazil, Shoestring &c. But in the 

 warehouses for the most part only two sorts are made out, 

 that is, Aronokoe and Sweetscented. The latter is known by 

 its stalk and better smell, and is on that account preferred; 

 it is raised in greater quantity in Virginia than here, in the 

 lower parts along the James and York rivers ; the Aronokoe 

 is commoner in the upper regions of the Chesapeak Bay and 

 on the inland plantations. 



