onds, false packing, and planting or replanting tobacco after a
certain date.

As the tobacco industry continued to expand into the interior, the need
and the difficulty of regulating the quality of the leaf increased.
Owing to ignorance or indifference, the frontier planters seldom
resorted to methods of improving the quality of the crop. They traded
their tobacco in small lots with the outport merchants, those from
ports other than London, mostly Scottish, who sold the inferior tobacco
to the countries in northern Europe. In 1705 the Council proposed that
an experienced and competent person be appointed in each county to
inspect and receive all tobacco for discharge of debts in that county
at specifically named storehouses and "at no other place." These county
agents were to meet and select proper locations for building the
storehouses. Owners of the land sites selected were to be given the
privilege of building and renting these storehouses. If the owner did
not choose to build, he could rent the land site to the county agent
that he might build on it. If both refused to build, it was proposed
that the county court should buy the land and erect the storehouse.

Storehouses were already established on many of the land sites
proposed. In 1680, to accelerate the growth of towns, the General
Assembly had passed an act providing that fifty acres of land be laid
out for towns at convenient landings and that storehouses be built in
each, at which all goods imported had to be landed and all exports
stored while awaiting transportation. The towns and storehouses were
located in the following places in twenty counties: Accomac, Calvert's
Neck; Charles City, Flower de Hundred; Elizabeth City, Hampton;
Gloucester, Tindall's Point; Henrico, Varina; Isle of Wight, Pates
Field on Pagan Creek; James City, James City; Lancaster, Corotomond
River; Middlesex, Urbanna Creek; Nansemond, Dues Point; New Kent, Brick
House; Norfolk, on the Elizabeth River at the mouth of the Eastern
River; Northampton, Kings Creek; Northumberland, Chickacony; Essex,
Hobb's Hole; Stafford, Pease Point, at the mouth of Deep Creek;
Westmoreland, Nominie; and York, Ship Honors Store. Though none of the
proposals were passed by the General Assembly in 1705, they were
incorporated into later legislation and provided the basis for an
effective inspection system.

In 1712 the General Assembly once again decided it would be
advantageous to have designated places