Fees in the American Colonies. 
113 
E. COLONIAL INSPECTION FEES. 
Aside from ferry, bridge, and road-tolls, the inspection fees 
were the ones which most directly touched the every-day life of 
the colonist; even though they were by no means so numerous 
or important as they became after the revolution. In the South 
tobacco had already become the great staple, and it was early 
found necessary to require all tobacco offered for sale to be in¬ 
spected. The first statute on this subject was passed in the 
colony of Virginia in 1629. This provided that all tobacco ten¬ 
dered in payment of debts 1 should first be viewed and stamped 
by a tobacco viewer or inspector. In other words, this law de¬ 
cided what kind of tobacco should be legal tender in payment 
of debts. But there were other causes which led up to this leg¬ 
islation. Among these may be mentioned the fact that the 
price of Virginia tobacco had been steadily declining in Eng¬ 
land, because of its inferiority to the Spanish tobacco. 2 Fre¬ 
quent complaints were made by the merchants, who supposed that 
this inferiority was largely due to the carelessness of the planters, 
and as a result an attempt at tobacco inspection was made as 
early as 1619. 3 Another law was passed in 1630, 4 the ostensible 
purpose of which was to prevent the exportation of bad tobacco. 
This was further amended in 1632, “ in order to raise the price 
of exported tobacco, by improving its quality. ” 5 
The same purpose is stated in the preamble of a provincial in¬ 
spection law of Massachusetts Bay Colony, in the following 
words: “ to encourage the exportation and manufacture of the 
best pot- and pearl-ashes, to secure credit abroad to our produce, 
and thus displace those hitherto imported from Russia and other 
foreign countries. ” 6 Provision is here made for the appoint- 
1 Statutes , Henning, I, 152. Ibid., VIII, pp. 95, 223. 
2 Virginia was forced to inspect tobacco because the price was continu¬ 
ally forced down by the poor quality. Dinwiddie, Papers , Va. Hist. 
Colls., I, 38. 
3 Statutes , Henning, I, 205. 
4 All tobacco intended for export in Pennsylvania to be inspected (1656).- 
Hazard, Annals of Pa ., p. 225. 
5 Statutes , Henning, I, 190. 
' Provincial Laws of Mass. Bay , III, 804-806. Similar provisions en¬ 
acted in New York. Laws , 1784, I, 100. 
8 
