When Captain Smith was examined by the royal commissioners at the time the question of repealing the charter of the Company was agitated, he was asked to explain why it was that the Colony, in spite of the fertility of its soil and the variety of its natural products, exported but one commodity. His reply was a significant one. The reason, he declared in substance, was, that grain only brought two shillings and six pence a bushel, while tobacco brought three shillings a pound. A man’s labor in tobacco was calculated to be worth as much as sixty pounds, but in grain it was worth only ten.[1] Sandys held precisely the same views, the neglect of all commodities but tobacco being in his opinion directly traceable, certainly as long as the magazine price of three shillings was approved by the Company, to the high rate at which it was sold.
- ↑ Answer to the Commissioners’ Questions, 1624, Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 615; see also p. 565.
