in trade at
the magazine in Jamestown, for the best grades.

Even though it seemed that the London Company was getting the lions
share, these prices proved to be very profitable for the colonists and
the infant tobacco industry increased very rapidly. During the period
1615-1622 tobacco exports increased from 2,300 to 60,000 pounds, and by
1630 the volume had risen to 1,500,000. Meanwhile prices had fallen as
rapidly as production and exports had increased. In 1625 tobacco was
selling for about two shillings per pound, but in 1630 merchants were
reported to be buying it for less than one penny per pound.

It was quite obvious that the fall in prices was due to overproduction.
The English first attempted to alleviate the condition in 1619 through
monopolistic control. Negotiations were conducted with the Virginia
Company of London, Henry Somerscales, and Ditchfield in 1625. All were
opposed by the colony, except that of the London Company, because the
colonists thought that the various proposals would benefit the King and
a small group of court favorites at the expense of the planters.

The next move was made by the colony. In an attempt to restrict the
production of tobacco, Governor Wyatt ordered that production be
limited to 1,000 plants per person in each family in 1621. These same
instructions provided that only nine leaves were to be harvested from
each plant. Similar laws were enacted in 1622 and again in 1629, but
these laws were probably not strictly enforced as prices failed to
improve. Undaunted by failure in its first attempt to cope with the
situation, the General Assembly made several attempts at price fixing.
In 1632 tobacco prices in the colony were fixed at six pence per pound
in exchange for English goods; in 1633 it was increased to nine pence.

The 1639 crop was so large that the legislature ordered all of the bad
and half of the good tobacco destroyed; merchants were required to
accept fifty pounds of tobacco per 100 of indebtedness. English goods
were to be exchanged for tobacco at a minimum rate of three pence per
pound. The minimum rate of the 1640 crop was fixed at twelve pence.
Such legislation failed to meet with the approval of the home
government and in 1641 tobacco averaged about two pence per pound.

Following the depression of 1639 tobacco prices failed to rise above
three pence, and probably never averaged more than two pence per pound
for the next sixty years. To prevent the complet