Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/481

 but in the conflicts of the time no steps were taken by the Assembly to carry out his command. Five years later, when the evil complained of had become more intolerable, Byrd addressed his well-known treatise on bulk tobacco to the English authorities, and his recommendations were marked by a thorough understanding of every aspect of the question under discussion.

The stringency of these propositions is an evidence of the warm opposition which the habit of shipping in bulk had aroused among a large number of the colonists. No man who produced tobacco on a considerable scale was in favor of it, and of this class, Colonel Byrd was a very conspicuous representative; he was not only a cultivator of the ground but also a merchant and trader, and in all of these characters appreciated the force of every influence that was likely to lower the value of the principal commodity which he dealt in. The habit must have found