Soon after the days of Columbus, tobacco was embedded in European culture, with Spain and Portugal leading the way in cultivating and shipping it. Meanwhile, in Virginia, the struggling colony of Jamestown stopped their futile search for precious metals when they found another kind of gold in the thriving tobacco fields of the Powhatan people on Virginia's fertile coastal plains. And when John Rolfe began growing a sweeter variety of tobacco, England's share in the market surged.
To secure England's new source of revenue, King Charles I issued his Tobacco Proclamation on January 6, 1630. The proclamation granted the Virginia colonists exclusive rights to grow and export tobacco for the English market and regulated the quality of imported tobacco through inspections.
American-grown tobacco became a lucrative cash crop as Europe's rising demand propelled the colony's thriving industry, boosting England's economy. Virginia tobacco was so in demand that it soon became used as currency, even into the early days of the newly established American States.
However, soon the unintended and unexpected impacts came to light. The expansion of tobacco cultivation led to an elimination of forests, and land erosion, and exacerbated existing conflicts between European colonies and displaced Native Americans. Tobacco's overproduction depleted the soil nutrients and devastated Virginia's economy, widening the gap between social classes in the colony. Worst of all, the tobacco industry's heavy demand for laborers outpaced the supply of European servants, which soon led to the brutal nightmare of the African slave trade.
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“For they that will be rich, fall into tentation and snares, and into many foolish and noisome lusts, which drown men in perdition and destruction.”
(1 Timothy 6:9; 1599 Geneva Bible)
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