42 PROPORTIONS OF THE TOBACCO TRADE. 
one of the finest tobaccos known,* and large quantities 
were shipped to Spain and Portugal. The early voyagers 
little dreamed, however, of the vast proportions to be 
assumed by the trade in the plant which they had dis-. 
covered, and which in time proved a source of the greatest 
profit not only to the European colonies, but to the dealers in 
the Old World. 
Helps, treating'on this same subject, says: 
“Tt is interesting to observe the way in which a new pro- 
duct is introduced to the notice of the Old World—a 
product that was hereafter to become, not only an' unfailing 
source of pleasure to a large section of the whole part of 
mankind, from the highest to the lowest, but was also 
to distinguish itself as one of those commodities for revenue, 
which are the delight of statesmen, the great financial 
resource of modern nations, and which afford a means 
of indirect taxation that has perhaps nourished many a war, 
and prevented many a revolution. The importance, financi- 
ally and commercially speaking, of this discovery of 
tobacco—a discovery which in the end proved more produc- 
tive to the Spanish crown than that of the gold mines of the 
Indies.” 
Spain and Portugal in all their colonies fostered and 
encouraged its cultivation and then at once ranked as. 
the best producers and dealers in tobacco. The varieties 
grown by them in the West Indies and South America were 
highly esteemed and commanded much higher prices than 
that grown by the English and Dutch colonies. In 1620, 
however, the Dutch merchants were the largest. wholesale 
tobacconists in Europe, and the people of Holland, generally, 
the greatest consumers of the weed. 
The expedition of 1584, under the auspices of Sir Walter 
Raleigh, which resulted in the discovery of Virginia, also 
introduced the tobacco plant, among other novelties, to the 
attention of the English. Hariot,+ who sailed with this 
expedition, says of the plant: 
“There is an herb which is sowed apart by itselfe, and is 
*Trinidad tob: was then idered the finest. 
tA brief and true Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (London, 1588). 
