seemed calamitous that British industry should be drained
of good and useful commodities in exchange for a plant the consumption
of which was harmful rather than beneficial. It was at least some
satisfaction to know, then, that England could substitute for the
Spanish leaf the growth of their own colonies. Apparently it was only
later, however, that there came a full realization of the opportunity
afforded for enriching England and building up her merchant marine by
exporting tobacco to foreign countries. For the present they accepted
this one product of their experiment in colonial expansion, reluctantly
and with keen disappointment, as the best that could be obtained.

Yet it was obvious to the London Company that tobacco held out the only
prospect, not only of securing a profit from their venture, but of
bringing to Virginia some measure of prosperity. The first consignment
of leaf which came from the colony sold for no less than 5s. 3d. a
pound, a price which promised a rich return to the planters on the James
and their backers in England.[2-9] And they much preferred to have a
prosperous colony, even when prosperity was founded on tobacco, than a
weak, impoverished settlement, which would be a drain upon their
personal resources and of no value to the nation. Thus they accepted the
inevitable, gave what encouragement they could to the new product, and
sought to use it as a means for building up the British empire in
America. When once England had established herself firmly in the New
World, it would be time enough to return to the attempt to secure from
the colony ship-stores, potash, iron and silk.

With the overthrow of the Company, however, the Crown made repeated
efforts to direct the energies of Virginia away from the all-absorbing
cultivation of tobacco. In 1636 Charles I wrote to the Governor and
Council bidding them moderate the excessive quantities of the plant laid
out each year and to endeavor to produce some other staple
commodities.[2-10] "The King cannot but take notice," he reiterated the
next year, "how little that colony hath advanced in Staple commodities
fit for their own subsistence and clothing," and he warned the planters
to emulate the Barbados and Caribee Islands, where a beginning had been
made in cotton, wool and other useful things.[2-11] But the colonists
paid no heed to these repeated warnings. The King's commands were no
more effective in establishing new industries than had been the