Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/410

 maturity, like tobacco planted after the 10th of July. Careful measures were adopted to put a stop to the passing of ground leaves as a merchantable commodity. The original law on the subject was for some time systematically evaded, this inferior sort being sold secretly in small quantities at different times to sailors, who were either ignorant of its quality, or were tempted to buy it on account of its excessive cheapness. An additional penalty in consequence was imposed; for every hogshead of ground leaves sold in the Colony, three hogsheads of good tobacco were to be forfeited by the party guilty of the act, and for every hogshead of ground leaves shipped to England, the owner was to be mulcted ten hogsheads by way of punishment. This law was subsequently changed by the adoption of a provision altering its terms without diminishing its severity. It was declared that the detection of five pounds of ground leaves in a cask should expose its owner to a forfeit of five thousand pounds of tobacco, and the Grand Jury was specially enjoined to enforce the strictest observance of this Act. Many years later, the same regulations and a penalty equally as great were adopted in the instance of stalks, stalks being even more objectionable than ground leaves as a part of the contents of a hogshead, or intermingled with a cargo shipped in bulk.

In 1665, the ships sailing from Virginia with cargoes of tobacco represented the following English towns: Bristol, Weymouth, Dartmouth, Hull, Plymouth, London, Biddeford, and Barnstaple. Nine of these outgoing vessels were from Bristol alone. In the latter part of