Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/315

 which the action of men as well and as favorably known in the Colony as these were, might have been expected to have under any circumstances, the Goring contract met with the strongest opposition in Virginia, Secretary Kemp going so far as to say that if it were carried into effect, the shipping engaged in the trade between England and the Colony would decline to the small proportion of the very few vessels which the contractors would require.

In 1627, the cultivation of tobacco in England was again prohibited.

It was admitted that at this time large quantities were grown in several parts of the kingdom, and so determined were many persons engaged in this branch of agriculture, that in some cases the officers who were sent out to destroy the plants were, when they attempted to do so, severely beaten by the owners. The efforts to enforce the law were only partially successful; in 1630, so much tobacco was produced in England that a memorial was addressed to the English authorities by the Governor of Virginia, urging the passage of an Act of Parliament to suppress its cultivation, as the royal proclamation had proved so ineffective. The amount planted in England was represented to be increasing, and it was asserted that if this were permitted to continue, the English settlements in America would fall into permanent ruin; already the sale of the leaf