to obstruct the introduction of tobacco from his American possessions.[1] The whole object of James was to lay such charges on the importation of that commodity from Virginia, as to place it at a serious disadvantage in its competition with the Spanish product, which was already severe in consequence of the public belief that the Spanish leaf was superior in quality to the Virginian. His repeated remonstrance with the colonists for their absorption in the cultivation of tobacco, had its origin less in a statesmanlike conception of the greater benefit which might accrue to them from the full development of all the natural sources of wealth in the new plantation, a consideration which undoubtedly had weight with him, than in the determination to cripple a formidable rival of Spain in the marts of England.
- ↑ Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, vol. II, p. 124.
