bargain. With all costs considered — the initial bill of 60 

 million francs ($11,250,000), payment of claims of 

 American citizens against France, and interest charges 

 — the total came to something over $27 million, or about 

 four cents an acre for the land acquired! 



w. 



lieat and tobacco 



The uncertainties attending the export market for 

 Kentucky tobacco since 1791 had brought about a de- 

 sirable diversification of agriculture in the state. Hemp 

 had shared with tobacco in commercial importance and 

 now flour was becoming the major product. A report to 

 the Secretary of State at Washington in 1798 said, in part: 



In the beginning tobacco was the principal ex- 

 port from Kentucky and at one period from 

 fifteen hundred to two thousand hogsheads 

 came down the Mississippi annuaUy for three 

 or four years . . . Within the last three years 

 the exportation of tobacco has considerably 

 diminished and flour seems to take its place. 



Five years later flour was, in fact, the major export 

 commodity from Kentucky to New Orleans. The produc- 

 tion of tobacco liad been curtailed by the older planters 

 but new settlers were continuing in an agriculture with 

 which they were most familiar. There was plenty of 

 cured tobacco available. An advertiser in 1804 offered 

 30,000 pounds of good leaf "three to four years old" to 

 be sold at New Orleans, and others were offering to ex- 

 change merchandise for cash or tobacco. And between 

 1792 and 1810 the Kentucky River banks held 42 new 

 tobacco warehouses. These were, since an enactment of 

 1803, more substantial buildings than the log cabins of 

 the preceding era. It seemed only logical that towns 

 de\el()ped wherex or these warehouses were erected. 



37 



