Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/482

 its chief supporters among those who were not interested in planting, and who were anxious to take advantage of every means that would enable them to transport their tobacco to the English market at the earliest opportunity after the process of curing was finished, and at the lowest freight rates which could be secured. Such men were doubtless, in most cases, factors of English merchants who were seeking to acquire the largest profit on their purchases.

To obtain an accurate notion as to the quantity of leaf which was shipped from Virginia each year in the closing decade of the century, it is necessary only to examine the returns of the collectors for the different districts established when a duty of two shillings was imposed on every hogshead and every five hundred pounds in bulk exported from the Colony. In 1689, there were eight of these districts, and the whole amount of tax derived from this source was three thousand six hundred and thirty-one pounds sterling. It is interesting to note that in this year the county of York produced the largest quantity of tobacco; Rappahannock followed next, but at a very considerable interval; Upper James was the third in the list, and Accomac the last. Seven years afterwards, the tax collected did not exceed three thousand pounds, but in the meantime a law had been passed providing that the size of a hogshead might be increased one-fifth, the result of which was to diminish the volume of revenue from this source very materially. So far as the amount reaching the colonial treasury was concerned, it was still further curtailed by the fact that ten per cent of it was paid over to the masters of the ships to induce them to return an accurate statement as to their cargoes; an additional ten per cent was always allowed to the collectors, and seven and a half per cent to the auditors.