Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/420

 To this they assented, and both Colonies resolved to prohibit the cultivation of tobacco in their boundaries from February, 1666, to February, 1667. The authorities of Carolina agreed to follow the example of those of Virginia and Maryland. Their delay in doing so, however, was considered by Maryland to be a justification for withdrawing from the agreement with Virginia, but in October the arrangement was adopted by the three Colonies. It came to nothing because disapproved by Baltimore. In 1667, the year in which the cessation ought to have taken place, tobacco only brought half a penny a pound, and as the average crop of the individual did not exceed twelve hundred pounds, it will be seen that the condition of most of the planters was deplorable. Ludwell, writing to the authorities in England, declared that there were but three influences restraining the smaller landowners of Virginia from rising in rebellion, namely, faith in the mercy of God, loyalty to the King, and affection for the Governor.

The crop of 1666 was so enormous that it required one hundred vessels to remove only a part of it to England. In 1667, when the production had been so much curtailed by the storm that made that year one of the most memorable in the history of the Colony, eighty ships were employed in the transportation of tobacco, but it was estimated at the time that at least fifty of these vessels carried out cargoes belonging to the crop of 1666. It would be inferred from this fact that Virginia was now