Tobacco in Colonial Virginia: "The Sovereign Remedy"Herndon, G. Melvin
History
Tobacco in Colonial Virginia: "The Sovereign Remedy"
Herndon, G. Melvin
Tobacco -- Virginia -- History; Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
In 1639 all of the mean tobacco and half of the good was ordered
destroyed. The legislature passed an act providing for the appointment
of 213 inspectors, three were assigned to each district. These
inspectors were authorized to break down the doors of any building if
they had reason to believe that tobacco was being concealed within.
This act was designed primarily to restrict the quantity of tobacco to
be marketed owing to the flooded markets abroad and the resulting low
prices.
All of the inspection laws passed after 1632 were formally repealed in
1641. The only important inspection law left on the statute books was
the one passed in 1630 requiring the plantation commander, who was
later replaced by the county lieutenant, to appoint two or three
inspectors to inspect tobacco sold or received in payment of a debt,
upon complaint of the buyer or creditor that he had been passed some
bad tobacco. The law remained on the books until 1730. After these
early attempts to establish an effective inspection system, little
further progress was made during the seventeenth century. Occasional
acts aimed at controlling the quantity and quality of tobacco continued
to be passed from time to time; such as laws prohibiting the tending of
seconds, false packing, and planting or replanting tobacco after a
certain date.
As the tobacco industry continued to expand into the interior, the need
and the difficulty of regulating the quality of the leaf increased.
Owing to ignorance or indifference, the frontier planters seldom
resorted to methods of improving the quality of the crop. They traded
their tobacco in small lots with the outport merchants, those from
ports other than London, mostly Scottish, who sold the inferior tobacco
to the countries in northern Europe. In 1705 the Council proposed that
an experienced and competent person be appointed in each county to
inspect and receive all tobacco for discharge of debts in that county
at specifically named storehouses and "at no other place." These county
agents were to meet and select proper locations for building the
storehouses. Owners of the land sites selected were to be given the
privilege of building and renting these storehouses. If the owner did
not choose to build, he could rent the land site to the county agent
that he might build on it. If both refused to build, it was proposed
that the county court should buy the land and erect the storehouse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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