Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/350

 of the highest grades declined to such a point that the planters were hardly able to gain a bare subsistence. In this emergency a law was passed, requiring that all the mean product should be destroyed and one-half of the good, the object being to reduce the volume of the crop to one million five hundred thousand pounds. That amount, as experience had shown, always commanded a price which left some margin for profit, because the quantity was not in excess of the demand in the English markets. It was further provided that during the course of the following two years, the amount of tobacco to be cultivated to the head should not run over two hundred and seventy pounds.

The details of this Act are interesting as showing how carefully considered were the regulations which the authorities of the Colony adopted to enforce a reduction in the quantity of the leaf produced as well as an improvement in its quality. Three viewers were appointed to serve in each district as laid off by the provisions of the statute, the whole number being two hundred and thirteen, including many of the most prominent and influential planters in Virginia. The tobacco belonging to the inspectors themselves, growing in the limits of their respective jurisdictions, was to be examined by persons who had been chosen to perform this duty by the commanders of the different counties. The penalty inflicted upon a viewer for neglecting to carry out the requirements of the law was the forfeiture of five pounds sterling. The planter was to be allowed several days, after the publication of the intention of the inspectors to examine the tobacco in their districts, to make an assortment of the different grades of his crop, and if he took advantage of the opportunity to convey the whole, or a part of it secretly on