Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/351

 board ship, or if he had already done this previous to the public announcement by the viewers that they would proceed upon their rounds by a designated time, he was, if detected in this violation of the statute, compelled to pay double the quantity of leaf which he had sought to remove out of sight, one-half to be sold for the benefit of the public treasury, and the other to be appropriated by the viewers in whose limits the fraudulent act was committed. If the planter had crops in different precincts, he was permitted to burn on one of his plantations the whole proportion of the fine grades which he was commanded to destroy, and to reserve the entire quantity of good leaf on another plantation for sale. The inspectors were authorized to break down the doors of any building in which they had reason to think that tobacco was concealed, and in doing this, they were not compelled to show the ordinary search-warrant in justification.

While the Acts for curtailing the area under cultivation in tobacco and improving the quality of the leaf offered for sale, were doubtless evaded to an important extent, nevertheless they must have accomplished their object substantially. Tobacco was constantly fluctuating in value, and not infrequently sank below the cost of producing it, but in the main, it sold at rates that promoted the rapid advance of Virginia in all the elements of material wealth. If the competition of other British possessions had been removed, and the introduction into England of the Spanish leaf by illegal methods had been successfully obstructed, the restrictive statutes passed by the Assembly would have easily kept the supply of the commodity on an equality with the demand, in spite of the growth of population in the Colony, and the increase in the number of plantations. In applying the rigid inspection law, it can be easily seen that th