mated at L100,000. Even if we accept the conservative statement that
the average number of hogsheads exported from Virginia in the last
decade of the century varied from 35,000 to 40,000,[7-6] the planters
still would have received L75,000 or L80,000. From dire poverty and
distress the colony, almost in the twinkling of an eye, found itself in
comparative ease and plenty.

Nor is the reason difficult to discover. It had never been the intention
of the British Government to destroy the foreign trade of the colonies,
the Navigation Acts having been designed only to force that trade
through English channels. The planters were still at liberty to send
their tobacco where they would, provided it went by way of England and
paid the duty of a half penny a pound. That these restrictions so nearly
put an end to shipments to the continent of Europe was an unfortunate
consequence which to some extent had been foreseen, but which for the
time being it was impossible to avoid.

It was undoubtedly the hope of the Government that the foreign market
would eventually be regained and that the colonial tobacco would flow
from the colonies into England and from England to all the countries of
Europe. Prior to 1660 Holland had been the distributing centre for the
tobacco of Virginia and Maryland; now England insisted upon taking this
role upon herself. But the authorities at London were hardly less
concerned than the planters themselves at the difficulties encountered
in effecting this change and the unfortunate glut in the home markets
which followed.

None the less they persisted in the policy they had adopted, even
clinging stubbornly to the half penny a pound re-export duty, and
trusting that in time they could succeed in conquering for their tobacco
the lost continental markets. In this they were bitterly opposed by the
Dutch with whom it became necessary to fight two wars within the short
space of seven years. Yet steadily, although at first slowly, they made
headway. In 1681 the commissioners of the customs refused the request
for a cessation of tobacco planting in the colonies, on the ground that
to lessen the crop would but stimulate production in foreign countries
and so restrict the sale abroad of the Virginia and Maryland leaf.[7-7]
This argument has been denounced by some as both specious and selfish,
yet it was fully justified by the situation then existing. After all,
the only hope for the planters lay in conquering the Eur