Part 3 (1/2)
Instead of attempting to limit production in an effort to relieve the market conditions, these low prices caused the planters to increase production as they attempted to meet their obligations. In 1709 tobacco production reached an all-time high of 29,000,000 pounds.
The Peace of Utrecht in 1713 seems to have brought little relief.
Tobacco prices failed to improve until after the pa.s.sage of the inspection act in 1730. In 1731 tobacco sold for as much as twelve s.h.i.+llings six pence per hundred pounds, despite the fact that Virginia exported 34,000,000 pounds. In a further attempt to improve the quality and the price of tobacco the General a.s.sembly ordered the constables in each district to enforce the law forbidding the planters to harvest suckers. Anyone found tending suckers after the last of July was to be heavily penalized. These two measures seem to have produced the desired effects; in 1736 tobacco sold for fifteen s.h.i.+llings per hundred pounds.
Unlike Queen Anne's War, King George's War seemed to stimulate tobacco prices and they remained relatively good for a number of years after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. During the early 1750's merchants paid up to twenty s.h.i.+llings per hundred pounds, even though Virginia had been exporting from 38,000,000 to 53,000,000 pounds annually.
During the French and Indian War the belligerents agreed to continue the tobacco trade, but in spite of this arrangement there were unusual price fluctuations owing primarily to inflation and occasional poor crops. In 1755 a period of inflation was created when Virginia resorted to the printing press for currency. At the same time war operations hampered production and only about one-half of the usual annual crop was produced, and tobacco prices rose to twenty s.h.i.+llings per hundred weight. During the years of peace just prior to the American Revolution, tobacco averaged about three pence per pound and never fell below two pence. With the outbreak of hostilities the General a.s.sembly prohibited the exportation of tobacco to the British Empire.
Frequent overproduction and the numerous wars during the eighteenth century seem to have caused more violent price fluctuations than those of the previous century. Although the American colonies did not partic.i.p.ate in all of the wars involving England, all of them had their effects upon the colonies. Virginia depended primarily upon England to transport her tobacco crop and during the war years there was a frequent shortage of s.h.i.+ps used for the tobacco trade. As this cut off the tobacco supply to the foreign markets, many of them began to grow their supply of tobacco.
The tobacco crops were small almost every year during the Revolution.
Owing to the increase in the demand for foodstuffs many of the planters switched from tobacco to wheat. During the first year of the war tobacco exports dropped from 55,000,000 to 14,500,000 pounds. It has been said that for the entire period 1776-1782 Virginia's exports were less than her exports of a single year before the Revolution. Wartime prices and inflation caused tobacco prices to increase from eighteen s.h.i.+llings per hundred pounds in 1775 to 2,000 s.h.i.+llings, in Continental currency, in 1781. An official account in the latter part of 1780 related that twenty-five s.h.i.+llings per hundred pounds in specie was considered a very substantial price. A very small crop in 1782 was followed by one that topped any of the pre-war crops, and by 1787 prices had fallen to fifteen pence per pound. Prices dropped to $12.00 in 1791, and a period of relatively low prices continued until 1797 when prices increased as a result of an extensive s.h.i.+ft from tobacco to wheat. In 1800 prices dropped to $7.40 per hundred pounds as Virginia exported a near record crop of over 78,000 hogsheads of tobacco.
VIRGINIA TOBACCO PRICES AND EXPORTS, 1615-1789
A complete and accurate price table would be virtually impossible to compile. Some of these averages represent only single individual quotations, or the average of only two or three such quotations. These charts are intended to give the reader a general picture of the prices during the Colonial period.
Year Average Price Average Price Pounds Exported per Lb. per Cwt.
1615 3s 2,300 1617 3s 20,000 1618 3s 41,000 1619 3s 44,879 1620 2s 6d 40,000 1621 3s 55,000 1622 3s 60,000 1623 2s 1625 2s 4d 1626 3s 500,000 1628 3s 6d 500,000 1629 1,500,000 1630 1d 1,500,000 1631 6d 1,300,000 1632 6d 1633 9d 1634 1d 1637 9d 1638 2d 1639 3d 1,500,000 1640 12d 1,300,000 1641 2d 1,300,000 1642 2d 1644 1-1/2d 1645 1-1/2d 1649 3d 1651 16s 1652 20s 1655 2d 1656 2d 1657 3d 1658 2d 1659 2d 1660 2d 1661 2d 1662 2d 1664 1-1/2d 1665 1d 1666 1-1/5d 1667 1/2d 1669 20s 1676 1-1/2d 1682 1-1/5d 1683 2d 1684 1/2d 1685 2-1/2d 1686 1-1/5d 1688 18,295,000 1690 1d 1691 2d 1692 1d 1695 1-1/2d 1696 1-1/5d 1697 1/2d 22,000,000 1698 20s 22,000,000 1699 20s 22,000,000 1700 10s average 1701 average 1702 20s 1704 2d 18,000,000 1706 1/4d 1709 1d 29,000,000 1710 1d 1713 3s 1715 2s 1716 11s 1720 1d 1722 3/4d 1723 1d 1724 1-1/2d 1727 9d 1729 10d 1731 12s 6d 34,000,000 1732 9d 34,000,000 1733 2d 34,000,000 1736 2d 34,000,000 1737 9d average 1738 3d average 1739 2d average 1740 34,000,000 1744 2d 47,000,000 1745 14s 38,232,900 1746 2d 36,217,800 1747 37,623,600 1748 16s 8d 42,104,700 1749 2d 43,880,300 1750 15s 43,710,300 1751 16s 43,032,700 1752 2d 43,542,000 1753 20s 53,862,300 1754 45,722,700 1755 2d 42,918,300 1756 20s 25,606,800 1757 3d 1758 3d 22,050,000 1759 35s 55,000,000 1760 55,000,000 1761 22s 6d 55,000,000 1762 11d 55,000,000 1763 2d 55,000,000 1764 12s 6d 55,000,000 1765 3d 55,000,000 1766 4s average 1767 3s 10d average 1768 22s 6d average 1769 23s average 1770 25s average 1771 18s average 1772 20s average 1773 12s 6d average 1774 13s average 1775 3-1/4d 55,000,000 1776 12s 14,498,500 1777 34s 12,441,214 1778 70s 11,961,333 1779 400s 17,155,907 1780 1,000s 17,424,967 1781 2,000s 13,339,168 1782 36s 9,828,244 1783 40s 86,649,333 1784 30s 10d 49,497,000 1785 30s 55,624,000 1786 19d 60,380,000 1787 15d 60,041,000 1788 25s 58,544,000 1789 15d 58,673,000
CONCLUSION
The history of tobacco is the history of Jamestown and of Virginia. No one staple or resource ever played a more significant role in the history of any state or nation. The growth of the Virginia Colony, as it extended beyond the limits of Jamestown, was governed and hastened by the quest for additional virgin soil in which to grow this ”golden weed.” For years the extension into the interior meant the expansion of tobacco production. Without tobacco the development of Virginia might have been r.e.t.a.r.ded 200 years.
Tobacco was the life and soul of the colony; yet a primitive, but significant, form of diversified farming existed from the very beginning especially among the small farmers. Even with the development of the large plantations in the eighteenth century, there were quite a number of small landowners interspersed among the big planters in the Tidewater area, and they were most numerous in the Piedmont section.