regulations and
restrictions which proved most vexatious to the colony and elicited
frequent and vigorous protests. Neither James nor Charles had any idea
of permitting free trade. In their prolonged struggle with the liberal
party both saw in tobacco a ready means of aiding the Exchequer, and so
of advancing toward the goal of financial independence. These monarchs
were by no means hostile to Virginia. In fact, both took great interest
in the tiny settlement upon the James, which they looked upon as the
beginning of the future British colonial empire. Yet they lent too
willing an ear to those who argued that tobacco might be made to yield a
goodly revenue to the Crown without injury to the planters.

The policy adopted by the early Stuart kings and adhered to with but
minor changes throughout the colonial period consisted of four essential
features. First, the tobacco raised in the plantations should be sent
only to England; second, upon entering the mother country it must pay a
duty to the Crown; third, Spanish tobacco should be excluded or its
importation strictly limited; lastly, the cultivation of the plant in
England itself was forbidden.

In the years when the colony was still weak and dependent upon the
mother country this program was not unfair. The prohibition of tobacco
growing in England, however unnecessary it would have been under
conditions of free trade, was felt by the planters to be a real
concession, while the restrictions upon foreign importations saved them
from dangerous competition at the very time when they were least able to
combat it. Nor were they seriously injured by the imposition of the
customs duties. The planters themselves imagined that the incidence of
this tax fell upon their own shoulders and that they were impoverished
to the full extent of the revenues derived from it. But in this they
were mistaken. The duty, in the last resort, was paid not by the
planters but by the British consumers. The colonists were affected
adversely only in so far as the enhanced price of tobacco in England
restricted the market.

On the other hand, the prohibition of foreign trade was a very real
grievance and elicited frequent protests from the planters. Dutch
merchants paid high prices for the Virginia tobacco and offered their
manufactured goods in return at figures far below those of the British
traders. The Virginians could not understand why they should not take
advantage of this opportunity. "I h