Potomac River, on the land of Hugh West, Sr. (a member of the Alexander
clan) and where there was already a ferry to the Maryland side of the
river. Almost immediately a little village grew up--a group of small
houses and a school--known then as Belle Haven.

Tobacco was currency in the colony, tendered as such, and it constituted
the first wealth. Salaries and fees were paid in tobacco, fines were
levied in tobacco; it was the medium of exchange in England as well as
in Virginia. When the colonists wrote the word, they used a capital T!

His Majesty's government of the New World was much occupied with the
cultivation, housing, and transportation of this natural weed. The
importance attached to tobacco is best illustrated by a most
extraordinary law. When Englishmen, whose homes are their castles,
permitted the right of search of citizens' private dwellings, some idea
of the value of this commodity may be realized. The Burgesses resolved
early "that any Justice of Peace who shall know or be informed of any
Package of Tobacco of less than----weight made up for shipping off,
shall have power to enter any suspected House, and by night or by day
and so search for, and finding any such Package, to seize and destroy
the same; and moreover the Person in whose Possession the same shall be
found, shall be liable to a Penalty."[3] Inspectors of tobacco held
their appointments under the King; theirs was the responsibility of
watching the crop, estimating its yield and weight, maintaining the
standard of quality and inspecting the packing. Moreover, no tobacco
could be "bought or sold, but by Inspector's Notes, under a Penalty both
upon the Buyer and Seller."[4]

In 1742 the Burgesses, lower house of Virginia's Parliament, in session
at Williamsburg, became exercised about the tobacco trade and "Resolved,
That an humble address of this house be presented to His Majesty, and a
Petition to the Parliament of Great Britain; representing the distressed
state and decay of our Tobacco Trade, occasioned by the Restraint on our
Export; which must, if not speedily remedied, destroy our Staple; and
there being no other expedient left for Preservation of this Valuable
Branch of the British Commerce, to beseech His Majesty and His
Parliament, to take the same into Consideration; and that His Majesty
may be graciously pleased to grant unto his subjects of this Colony, a
Free Export of their Tobacco to Foreign Markets directly, under such
Limit