KING CHARLES AS A TOBACCO MERCHANT. 63 
direction, appointing the Governor and Council himself, and 
Before the death of King James, however, the cultivation 
of tobacco had become so extensive that every other product 
seemed of but little value in comparison with it, and the 
price realized from its sale being so much greater than that 
obtained for “ Corne,” the latter was neglected and its culture 
almost entirely abandoned. 
Arthur and Carpenter, in their History of Virginia, give 
a graphic and truthful picture of its cultivation during the 
reign of King James :— 
“The first articles of commerce to the production of which 
the early settlers almost exclusively devoted themselves, were 
potash, soap, glass and tar. Distance, however, and a want 
of the proper facilities to enable them to manufacture cheaply, 
rendered the cost of these commodities so great, that exports 
of a similar character from Russia and Sweden were still 
enabled to maintain their old ascendency in the markets of 
Europe. After many fruitless and costly experiments in the 
cultivation of the vine, the growing demand for tobacco 
enabled the planters to turn their labor into a profitable 
channel. As the demand increased the profits became corre- 
spondingly great, and every other species of labor was aban- 
doned for the cultivation of tobacco. 
“The houses were neglected, the palisades suffered to rot 
down, the fields, gardens and public squares, even the very 
streets of Jamestown were planted with tobacco. The towns- 
people, more greedy of gain than mindful of their own 
security, scattered abroad into the wilderness, where they 
broke up small pieces of rich ground and made their crop 
regardless of their proximity to the Indians, in whose good 
faith so little reliance could be placed.” 
During the reign of Charles I. many families of respect- 
able connection joined the colony, and from this time 
forward the colony increased in wealth as well as numbers. 
King Charles, to use the language of another, had now com- 
menced “as a tobacco merchant and monopolist,” and in 1627 
issued a proclamation renewing his already strong monopoly 
more effectually, by appointing certain officers of London 
“to seize all foreign tobacco, not of the growth of Virginia 
or Bermudas, for his benefit, agreeable to a former commis- 
sion: also to buy up for his use all the tobacco coming from 
