ble revenue on the surplus tobacco products resold
on the European market.

TOBACCO BECAME MONEY

One of the needs of the colony was a medium of exchange: something
that could be used for money. As the balance of trade was heavily in
favor of the Mother Country, there was no opportunity for an
accumulation of English money in America. So tobacco became
acceptable for goods, services, and the payment of debts. Salaries
were fixed in pounds of tobacco.

FLUCTUATING PRICES

The value placed on tobacco in England varied with the supply and
demand. With the introduction of Negroes in 1619, and the greatly
increased immigration from England, the acreage devoted to the
culture of tobacco expanded rapidly. The first serious effects of
over-production occurred in 1630, when the price fell from three
shillings, six pence to one penny a pound. This calamity proved to be
a blessing in disguise. The next year, a boat of "18 tons burden,"
loaded with corn and tobacco disposed of its cargo at Salem,
Massachusetts, then but recently settled. The corn brought six
shillings a bushel. This started a brisk trade and a Dutch ship, in
1632, took 2,000 bushels of corn from Virginia to New England. In
1633, it was estimated that 10,000 bushels of corn from Virginia were
sold in Massachusetts besides a number of beef cattle, goats, and
hogs. In spite of the ruinously low prices which sometimes prevailed,
the amount of tobacco shipped overseas continued to increase. In
1639, 1,500,000 pounds were exported from Virginia alone.

GROWTH OF THE COLONY

Captain John Smith summarized the condition of the colony in 1629 in
these words:

Master Hutchins saith, they have 2,000 cattle, and about 5,000
people; but Master Floud, John Davis, William Emerson, and
divers others, say about five thousand people, and five thousand
kine, calves, oxen, and bulls; for goats, hogs, and poultry;
corne, fish, deere, and many sorts of other wild beasts; and
fowle in their season, they have so much more than they spend,
they are able to feed three or foure hundred men more than they
have.

Starving times as a rule were over. Periods of short rations occurred
infrequently and then only in times of disaster such as the aftermath
of the Indian massacre of 1622 or when the planters became so
engrossed in growing tobacco that they neglected to plant maize or
other grains. Each succeeding crop was new wealth, something