rade, proposed to limit the imports to
200 pounds for each master of a family and 125 for each servant.[4-10]
To this, however, the planters entered a vigorous protest, claiming that
the quantity was "not sufficient for their maintenance." They in turn
suggested that the King take a total of 500,000 pounds a year, which for
a population of 3,000 meant 167 pounds for each inhabitant, or perhaps
about 500 pounds for each actual laborer.[4-11] Again in 1634 it was
proposed that the Crown purchase yearly 600,000 pounds of Virginia
tobacco.[4-12] As the population of the colony at that date was about
5,000, this would have allowed only 120 pounds for each person, and once
more the planters protested vigorously.[4-13] It would seem that both of
these offers were based not so much upon the amount that one man could
raise as upon the quantity which could be sold in England at a certain
price. In fact it is probable that even so early as 1628 the average
output of one freedman was not less than 1,000 pounds. It is interesting
to note that in 1640, soon after Governor Francis Wyatt's arrival from
England, it was found that the excessive crop of the previous year had
so clogged the market that upon the advice of the merchants the
Government was "forced to a strict way of destroying the bad and halfe
the goode."[4-14]

The author of _A New Description of Virginia_, published in 1649, claims
that one man could plant from 1,600 to 2,000 pounds a year.[4-15] As the
pamphlet presents a somewhat optimistic picture of affairs in general in
the colony, this estimate must be taken with some reserve. More
trustworthy is the statement of Secretary Thomas Ludwell in 1667 that
1,200 pounds was "the medium of men's yearly crops."[4-16]

At all events, it is evident that the planter, even when entirely
dependent upon his own exertions, could produce a goodly crop. It is now
necessary to ascertain what he got for it. In the second and third
decades of the Seventeenth century the price of tobacco was very high.
The first cargo, consisting of 20,000 pounds consigned in the George,
sold for no less than L5,250, or 5s. 3d. a pound.[4-17] No wonder the
leaders of the London Company were pleased, believing that in the Indian
weed they had discovered a veritable gold mine! No wonder the settlers
deserted their pallisades and their villages to seek out the richest
soil and the spots best suited for tobacco culture! The man who could
produce 200 pounds o