apid increase in the foreign trade, enriched
the Exchequer by another L100,000. In 1699, if we assume that 12,000,000
pounds were consumed in England, the return would have been L300,000;
while half a penny a pound on 36,000,000 pounds of re-exported leaf,
would have brought the total to L375,000. That this figure was
approximately correct we have evidence in the statement of the author of
_The Present State of the Tobacco Plantations_, written in 1705, that
the revenue yielded by the tobacco of Virginia and Maryland amounted
annually to L400,000.[7-19] This sum constituted a very appreciable
proportion of the royal income, so appreciable in fact as to make the
tobacco trade a matter of vital importance in the eyes of the King's
ministers. They were charged at all times to avoid any contingency which
might lessen the imports and reduce the customs.

The increase in the tobacco trade stimulated industry, not only by
increasing exports to Virginia and Maryland, but also by creating a new
English industry. For most of the tobacco, before it was sent abroad,
was subjected to a process of manufacture, by which the leaf was cut and
rolled and otherwise prepared for the consumer. This industry gave
employment to hundreds of poor persons in England and required a
considerable outlay of capital.[7-20]

To British navigation the trade was vital. Each year scores of
merchantmen crossed to the Chesapeake and swarmed in every river and
creek, delivering their English goods to the planters and taking in
return the hogsheads of tobacco. In 1690 the tobacco fleet numbered
about 100 ships, aggregating 13,715 tons; in 1706 it counted no less
than 300 sails.[7-21] Nor must it be forgotten that re-exported tobacco
also added many a goodly merchantman to the navy and gave employment to
many a seaman. Altogether Virginia and Maryland constituted an
invaluable asset, an asset which ranked in importance secondly only to
the sugar plantations.

It would naturally be supposed that the fortunate turn of events which
restored to the tobacco colonies their European market would have
reacted favorably upon the small planters of Virginia, not only insuring
plenty to those already established, but adding new recruits from the
ranks of the indentured servants; that the process of making prosperous
freemen from the poor immigrants who flocked to the colony, the process
interrupted by the passage of the Navigation Acts, would have been
resumed now tha