There’s nothing that boosted America economically in its beginnings more than tobacco. It was the driving factor of immigration to the New World, as its riches promised financial security or, to many, land and freedom. It turned a profit in the new world through direct sales of the crop itself, and also demand for more labor and land. Without the introduction of the cash crop, it is unlikely that America would have had the rapid growth it did, giving them the strength to become its own nation and eventually a global power.
The New World was advertised as a paradise in England. They did their bests to paint the land across the water as a place of new beginnings, financial opportunities, and gold. Unfortunately, in the beginning, Virginia did not have those to offer, namely the last one. Colonizers searched for ways to make money in the rough, new environment. They tried various industries, including ones such as glassblowing, vineyard cultivation, and silkworm farming. The many failures lead to the Virginia Company of London beginning in 1618 to encourage different attempts at new industries in the colony, but soon they found their match. Tobacco, an addictive product made of the leaves of a tobacco plant, was introduced to the British when they stole it off of Spanish merchant ships. Back then, although many people didn’t care for the smoke, tobacco was a popular substance for snuff and there were still many people who believed it was beneficial. In 1571, a Spanish doctor claimed that tobacco was a cure for 36 different health problems. Once it began being grown in the colony, it didn’t take off right away. This tobacco was taken from the native Indians, who had already grown their own form of it in America. Those who bought it from England claimed that it hit too harshly, and they much preferred the tobacco being grown in the West Indies. John Rolfe, an early English settler, fixed this issue by importing tobacco seeds directly from the West Indies. These new seeds were a huge success and by 1630, tobacco became the leading cash crop of Virginia and over a million and a half pounds of it was being exported from Jamestown every year.
The economic impact that the cash crop had on America was massive. Not only was it being shipped out in tons for cash, but it also helped the economy in other ways. Tobacco is a plant that is rough on its environment. It takes away large amounts of nutrients from the soil and because of this, it can’t be planted on the same spot of land repeatedly without a drastic decrease in quality or inability to grow at all. In order to prevent this overproduction, the General Assembly began limiting settlers to only 1,500 plants at a time. Farmers were forced into a system of planting it for three seasons in a row, and then letting the land regrow naturally for another three years before planting it again. This process meant that farmers now needed double the amount of land in order to maintain steady yields. Virginians began seeking approval from the General Assembly to reach further into America to take more farm land and by 1648, tobacco land had spread all the way out to above the York River. Another problem that arose from tobacco was that fact that it was very labor intensive and required a lot of people to farm it. The settlers solved this problem by introducing indentured servants. These were often people who were very poor or in jail in England and were brought to the New World. Their boat fares were paid for in exchange for usually 4-7 years of work on a tobacco plantation. This relatively cheap labor allowed Virginia to rapidly increase the rate at which they were exporting tobacco, overall growing the economy even more. The plant’s growth continued to spread out as the American colonies expanded, but in the 1680s, prices dropped. Before this, tobacco exports were often sold directly to English merchants, allowing planters to turn a profit right away, but now this was no longer an option due to the low demand. They now had to turn to commission agents, who would keep the tobacco until it sold and then would pay the farmer then, while also taking a chunk of the profit.
While tobacco’s impact on colonial America had obvious positive effects, today the plant serves as a menace. Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States, killing more than 480,000 Americans every year. It’s impact as a driver of the United States economy decreased throughout the years as new science and technologies discovered the dangers behind it, such as in 1826 when the highly addictive substance nicotine was discovered and 1836 when Samuel Green discovered that smoking too much of it can have fatal consequences. The CDC estimates that tobacco smoking costs the United States more than $300 billion dollars a year, $170 billion of that involving direct medical care and $156 billion of it in loss of productivity from the drastic loss of health in those who smoke it.
Despite the dramatic change of pace and public opinion of tobacco, it still had a massive impact on America’s economy. Both positive and negative effects have come from its presence in the United States, particularly in colonial times. Without it, America would probably not be where it is today.
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