CULTURE AND CURING IN VIRGINIA. 



223 



from tlie American colonies from 1763 to 1770, both inclusive, was 06,780 hogsheads of about 1,000 pounds each, 

 or 67,780,000 pounds. In 1770 Virginia and Maryland sold 110,000 hogsheads of tobacco to England, the share of 

 Maryland in that to the port of Bristol alone being 300,000. (a) Tobacco was the great currency of Maryland 

 until just before the Revolution. 



As we have now approached the period when the exportation of tobacco arrived at u poiut from which it has vibrated (sometimes 

 :i little above or below it), we subjoin :< statement of the exportation for the years 1 772-73-74-7 f> inclusive, which will furnish the 

 remarkable fact that, compared with any succeeding four years since that period, the annual exportation of tobacco just before the 

 Revolution was a bout the same that it has been at any time since, prior to 1840, in our most prosperous periods. For although 1790-'91-'9Si 

 were three years of very heavy exportation, they fell off in 1793 nearly one-half, making the annual average exportation not materially 

 <liflerent from 1772-'73-'74-'75. Lex Mervatoria Kediviva, p. 56. (6) 



The following statement shows the quantity of tobacco exported from the United Colonies from 1772 to 1776, 

 inclusive: (c) 



The inspection laws of Virginia expired by limitation October 1, 1775, and by act of December in that year 

 it was provided that the quality of tobacco might be decided by the neighbors of the owner, (d) By act of October 

 7, 1776, the inspection laws were temporarily revived, the impost duties were abolished, and the exportation of 

 tobacco to England was forbidden, (e) 



We have now arrived at the period of the Revolution, and the following table will exhibit the exportation during 

 that period : 



a This year Great Britain exported to the continent nearly 26,000,000 pounds of old stock. 

 6 Great Britain exported this year to the continent 6,000,000 pounds of former stock. 



The total exportation for the seven years was 86,649,333 pounds, or an annual average of 12,378,504 pounds. 

 Of the total seven years' exportation, 33,974,944 pounds were captured by the British during the war. (/) J. H. 

 Norton, of the firm of John Norton & Son, London, England, writing from thence under date of February 2, 1776, 

 to Nathaniel Littleton, Virginia, says, speaking of the 5th of September preceding : " Tobacco was then selling at 

 about 11 to 12 and 12s. and likely to rise." And further on he says: " I have such expectations of a change m 

 favor of the colonies, that I should like to speculate with you in a purchase of tobacco on the Eastern Shore if it 

 could be purchased for about 10 or even 12s. Qd. current, per cwt." (g) 



In October, 1777, by an act of the Virginia assembly, a duty of 10s. per hogshead was required to be paid on 

 all tobacco exported, (h) and in May, 1779, it was increased to 30s. per hogshead, the inspection fees being fixed at 



a Scharf 's History of Maryland, ii, p. 47. According to Beawes, 100,000 hogsheads were exported yearly, employing between 300 ami 

 400 ships, navigated by upward of 4,000 sailors ; of these 60,000 hogsheads are re-exported to foreign ports, yielding 5 per hogshea*!. 

 beside duties and drawbacks. 



ft According to the British Annual Register of 1775: "The imports into Great Britain before the war from Virginia and Maryland 

 were 96,000 hogsheads of tobacco, of which 13,500 were consumed at home, and the duty on them, at 26 Is. e.tch, amounted to 301,375. 

 The remaining 82,500 were exported by our merchants to different parts of Europe. This single trade constantly employed 330 ships anu 

 3,060 men." Jefferson says: " Before the war we exported Communibus annis Tobacco, 55,000 hhds. of 1,000 Ibs., at 30 dollars per hhd., 

 amounting to $1,1)50,000." Ifotes on Virginia, edition of J. W. Randolph, Richmond, 1853, pp. 177-178. 



c De Bow's Southern States, "Sugar, Tobacco, etc.," iii, p. 348. 



d Honing, ix, p. 97. "While tobacco was largely grown on our principals below tide, and the market was wholly abroad, it wiw 

 thought a hardship on such planters as could load a vessel from their own shores to compel them first to carry their crops to a distant 

 warehouse to be inspected ; and these clamors, after a few years, induced a repeal of the law. But its benefits had outweighed tho 

 inconvenience, and in time it was re-enacted ; and as tho culture of the plant spread westward the planters acquiesced in the arrangement, 

 which improved the quality of their staple and presented numerous brands. N. F. Cabell, p. 92. 



e Ibid., pp. 153-163. / De Bow, iii, p. 348. g Calendar Papers of Slate of Virginia, i, pp. 270,271. ft Heuing, ix, p. 36f 



52 AG 8-17 



