lmost universal. When James I
ascended the throne, although feeling a strong aversion to tobacco, he
was forced to take up its use in order not to appear conspicuous among
his courtiers, for the dictates of custom seem to have been as strong
three hundred years ago as at present.[2-4] At the time that Rolfe was
making his experiments England was spending yearly for the Spanish
product many thousands of pounds.

It is not surprising, then, that the colonists turned eagerly to tobacco
culture. The news that Rolfe's little crop had been pronounced in
England to be of excellent quality spread rapidly from settlement to
settlement, bringing with it new hope and determination. Immediately
tobacco absorbed the thoughts of all, became the one topic of
conversation, and every available patch of land was seized upon for its
cultivation. The fortified areas within the palisades were crowded with
tobacco plants, while even the streets of Jamestown were utilized by the
eager planters.[2-5] In 1617 the George set sail for England laden with
20,000 pounds of Virginia leaf, the first of the vast fleet of tobacco
ships which for centuries were to pass through the capes of the
Chesapeake bound for Europe.[2-6] By 1627, the tobacco exports amounted
to no less than half a million pounds.[2-7]

The London Company, together with the host of patriotic Englishmen who
had placed such great hopes in the colony, were much disappointed at
this unexpected turn of events. They had sought in the New World those
"solid commodities" which they realized were fundamental to the
prosperity of their country, commodities upon which English industrial
life was founded. And they had found only the Indian weed--tobacco. This
plant not only contributed nothing to the wealth of the kingdom, it was
felt, but was positively injurious to those who indulged in its use.
Surely, declared one writer, men "grow mad and crazed in the brain in
that they would adventure to suck the smoke of a weed." James I thought
there could be no baser and more harmful corruption, while Charles I
expressed himself with equal emphasis. So late as 1631 the latter
protested against the growing use of tobacco, which he termed "an evil
habit of late tymes."[2-8]

Yet England soon learned to welcome the colonial tobacco as far better
than no product at all. Hitherto the leaf in use had been raised in the
Spanish colonies, and England's annual tobacco bill was becoming larger
and larger. It