Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/306

 their crops, there being little if any encouragement to re-export their tobacco to Turkey, because the additional charges for freight would cut down the margin of profit to a point where it would hardly be appreciable. The leaf was also certain to shrink and decay in the course of such a long voyage. The planters computed the loss in transporting their crop to England, the falling off in weight entering as an element into the calculation as well as the freight, at four pence a pound, which amount, deducted from the sum that the contractors declared themselves willing to pay during the first two years, that is to say, two shillings and four pence, left a net profit of two shillings for tobacco of the first grade, and of one shilling for tobacco of the second. It was well known to the planters, from their experience in the past, that the disposition of the English purchaser was to rate very little of the imported leaf as belonging to the first grade; in consequence of which fact, if the offer of the contractors was accepted, the far greater proportion of this commodity that would be bought by them would be put down as belonging to the second, the division in determining the quality not being suffered to extend to more than two grades. Small as would be the amount which the planters would secure, the first instalment would not be payable until six months had expired. Twelve months, a period so long that a second crop of tobacco would be ready for market before its close, must pass before the second instalment fell due. The higher prices offered at the end of the first two years would be no inducement to enter into the contract, as in the interval the ruin of the Colony would be complete.

That the apprehensions of the planters, if they had been compelled to submit to the terms of the Ditchfield contract, were not exaggerated may be seen from the fact,