in making up crops for export, and occasional spoilage 

 at sea, other conditions affected the initial development 

 of Virginia's tobacco industry. 



Britain's king James I demonstrated an almost fanatic 

 opposition to the use of tobacco. The patent holders of 

 Virginia, the London Company, worried about a "colony 

 founded on smoke." From time to time the directors 

 ordered successive governors to diversify the staple agri- 

 culture with the hope of curtailing, if not eliminating it 

 altogether. Grave physicians issued solemn warnings, 

 attributing-all human ailments to smoking. There were, 

 as well, opponents among economists and others to the 

 colonial commerce in tobacco. 



But the plant that poets and writers were calling 

 "benevolent " and "divine" appeared to thrive on oppo- 

 sition. No one in Virginia seemed convinced that argu- 

 ments on economic grounds were sound. The use of 

 tobacco, too, was being severely opposed in some areas 

 in that period in the mistaken notion that the plant was 

 medicinal. Smokers generally rejected objections on the 

 ground of health. They had long ago assured themselves, 

 on the basis of solid, visible evidence, that there was no 

 harm in temperate smoking. 



The opposition, for the most part, had to accept the 

 inevitable. For the European market expanded enor- 

 mously in the 17th century, and throughout that area 

 there was a growing demand for "Virginia" leaf. Exports 

 that had totaled a few million pounds by the mid-1600's 

 were in the 20 millions and more by the end of the 

 century and in the range of 100 million before the Amer- 



15 



