Within a few years after Rolfe's successful experiment in the
cultivation of tobacco, it became necessary to inaugurate some means of
improving the quality of the Virginia tobacco. Once it was discovered
that tobacco could be successfully and profitably grown in Virginia,
everyone wanted to grow it. Blacksmiths, carpenters, shipwrights, and
even the minister frequently grew a patch of tobacco. Owing to
inexperience in farming of any kind, plus the fact that the commercial
production of tobacco was new even to most of the experienced farmers,
much of the tobacco produced was of a very low quality. For centuries
many planters seem to have placed quantity above quality in growing
tobacco. Anyone could grow tobacco in certain quantities, but only a
few could produce tobacco of superior quality.
The first general inspection law in Virginia was passed in 1619 and
provided that all tobacco offered for exchange at the magazine, the
general storehouse in Jamestown, found to be very "mean" in quality by
the magazine custodian was to be burnt. The magazine was abolished in
1620 and in 1623 this law was amended to provide for the appointment of
sworn men in each settlement to condemn all bad tobacco.
In 1630 an act was passed prohibiting the sale or acceptance of
inferior tobacco in payment of debts. The commander of each plantation
or settlement was authorized to appoint two or three experienced and
competent men to help him inspect all tobacco, offered in payment of
debts, which had been found "mean" by the creditor. If the inspectors
declared the tobacco mean, the inferior tobacco was burned and the
delinquent planter was disbarred from planting tobacco. Only the
General Assembly could remove this disability. Owing to complaints that
the commanders were showing partiality to planters on their own
plantations, the act was amended in 1632; the commander's power of
inspection was removed and his duty was limited to appointing two
inspectors and making the final report. The appointment of inspectors
was made compulsory in case of a complaint.
The following year (1633) a more comprehensive measure was enacted. It
provided that all inspections were to be made at five different points
in the colony: James City, Shirley Hundred Island, Denbigh, Southampton
River in Elizabeth City, and Cheskiack. Storehouses were to be built at
these places and all tobacco was to be brought to these storehouses
before the last day of December of each year. At these storehouses the
tobacco was to be carefully inspected and all of the bad tobacco
separated from the good and burned. This duty was to be performed once
each week by inspectors under oath, one of whom was to be a member of
the Council. All tobacco found in the barns of the planters after
December 31 was to be confiscated, unless reserved for family use. All
of those planning to keep tobacco for that purpose were required to
swear to this fact before the proper officials before December 31. All
debts were to be paid at one of these five storehouses, with the
storekeeper as a witness. Before the end of the year (1633) two other
such storehouses were authorized to be built,--one at Warrasquoke and
the other at a point lying between Weyanoke and the Falls. In addition
to the Councillors, members of the local courts were added as
inspectors. The provision requiring the burning of unmerchantable
tobacco may have been enforced, but the storehouses were never built.
In 1639 all of the mean tobacco and half of the good was ordered
destroyed. The legislature passed an act providing for the appointment
of 213 inspectors, three were assigned to each district. These
inspectors were authorized to break down the doors of any building if
they had reason to believe that tobacco was being concealed within.
This act was designed primarily to restrict the quantity of tobacco to
be marketed owing to the flooded markets abroad and the resulting low
prices.
All of the inspection laws passed after 1632 were formally repealed in
1641. The only important inspection law left on the statute books was
the one passed in 1630 requiring the plantation commander, who was
later replaced by the county lieutenant, to appoint two or three
inspectors to inspect tobacco sold or received in payment of a debt,
upon complaint of the buyer or creditor that he had been passed some
bad tobacco. The law remained on the books until 1730. After these
early attempts to establish an effective inspection system, little
further progress was made during the seventeenth century. Occasional
acts aimed at controlling the quantity and quality of tobacco continued
to be passed from time to time; such as laws prohibiting the tending of
seconds, false packing, and planting or replanting tobacco after a
certain date.
As the tobacco industry continued to expand into the interior, the need
and the difficulty of regulating the quality of the leaf increased.
Owing to ignorance or indifference, the frontier planters seldom
resorted to methods of improving the quality of the crop. They traded
their tobacco in small lots with the outport merchants, those from
ports other than London, mostly Scottish, who sold the inferior tobacco
to the countries in northern Europe. In 1705 the Council proposed that
an experienced and competent person be appointed in each county to
inspect and receive all tobacco for discharge of debts in that county
at specifically named storehouses and "at no other place." These county
agents were to meet and select proper locations for building the
storehouses. Owners of the land sites selected were to be given the
privilege of building and renting these storehouses. If the owner did
not choose to build, he could rent the land site to the county agent
that he might build on it. If both refused to build, it was proposed
that the county court should buy the land and erect the storehouse.
Storehouses were already established on many of the land sites
proposed. In 1680, to accelerate the growth of towns, the General
Assembly had passed an act providing that fifty acres of land be laid
out for towns at convenient landings and that storehouses be built in
each, at which all goods imported had to be landed and all exports
stored while awaiting transportation. The towns and storehouses were
located in the following places in twenty counties: Accomac, Calvert's
Neck; Charles City, Flower de Hundred; Elizabeth City, Hampton;
Gloucester, Tindall's Point; Henrico, Varina; Isle of Wight, Pates
Field on Pagan Creek; James City, James City; Lancaster, Corotomond
River; Middlesex, Urbanna Creek; Nansemond, Dues Point; New Kent, Brick
House; Norfolk, on the Elizabeth River at the mouth of the Eastern
River; Northampton, Kings Creek; Northumberland, Chickacony; Essex,
Hobb's Hole; Stafford, Pease Point, at the mouth of Deep Creek;
Westmoreland, Nominie; and York, Ship Honors Store. Though none of the
proposals were passed by the General Assembly in 1705, they were
incorporated into later legislation and provided the basis for an
effective inspection system.
In 1712 the General Assembly once again decided it would be
advantageous to have designated places in each county where tobacco and
other products could be kept safe while waiting for transportation to
England, and an act was passed providing that all houses already built
and being used as public "rolling-houses", that is warehouses, within
one mile of a public landing, be maintained by their respective owners.
If there were no such warehouses at designated locations, the county
courts were given the authority to order new ones built. If the owner
of the site refused to build, the county could, after a fair appraisal,
buy the land and build a warehouse at public expense. When and if the
warehouse was discontinued, the land reverted to the original owner or
his heirs. It is interesting to know that the warehouse built at
Urbanna, in Middlesex County, in 1680, is still standing, and it is
"America's only colonial built warehouse for tobacco still in
existence".
The owners were compelled to receive all goods offered, and were to
receive storage rates for these services. For goods stored in casks of
sixty gallons in size, or bales or parcels of greater bulk, the owners
of the storehouses received twelve pence for the first day or the first
three months and six pence for every three months thereafter. The owner
of the warehouse was made liable for merchandise lost or damaged while
under his custody.
One of the most significant features of the 1730 inspection system was
first introduced in 1713. Primarily through the efforts of Governor
Spotswood, an act was passed providing for licensed inspectors at the
various warehouses already established. To provide a convenient
circulating medium, and one that would not meet with opposition from
the English government, these inspectors were authorized to issue
negotiable receipts for tobacco inspected and stored at these
warehouses. Like many new and untried ideas, this law seemed somewhat
radical and met a great deal of opposition. With Colonel William Byrd
as their leader, the opposition was able to convince certain British
officials that the added expense required by the act imposed an undue
hardship on the tobacco trade. This local opposition combined with the
pressure of the conservative London merchants caused the act to be
vetoed by the Privy Council in 1716.
The act of 1712, providing for the regulation of public warehouses,
remained in force and became a part of the rather effective inspection
system established in 1730. The act was amended in 1720 giving the
county courts the authority to order warehouses inconvenient to the
landings discontinued. These two pieces of legislation brought all of
the public warehouses near convenient landings and made the warehouse
movement flexible. From this point on, as the tobacco industry shifted
from one area to another, the warehouse movement kept pace. From time
to time established warehouses were ordered discontinued, or new ones
erected; and occasionally warehouses ordered discontinued were revived.
However, it appears that inspection warehouses were not permitted above
the Fall Line until after the Revolution.
In 1730 the most comprehensive inspection bill ever introduced, passed
the General Assembly. The common knowledge that the past and present
inspection laws had failed to prevent the importation of unmarketable
tobacco, plus a long depression, had changed the attitude of many of
the influential planters and merchants. Nevertheless, the act did meet
with opposition from some of the English customs officials and a few of
the large planters. Soon after the passage of this new inspection law a
prominent planter wrote complainingly to a London merchant, "This Tobo
hath passed the Inspection of our new law, every hogshead was cased and
viewed by which means the tobacco was very much tumbled and made
something less sightly than it was before and it causes a great deal of
extraordinary trouble". There were complaints that the new law
destroyed tobacco that used to bring good money. Still another planter
complained that the planter's name and evidence on the hogshead had
much more effect on the price of the tobacco than the inspector's
brand. While some of the planters expressed their disapproval of the
new inspection law verbally, others resorted to violence. During the
first year some villains burned two inspection houses, one in Lancaster
County and another in Northumberland.
The inspection law passed in 1730 was frequently amended during the
colonial period, but there were no changes in its essential features.
The act provided that no tobacco was to be shipped except in hogsheads,
cases, or casks, without having first passed an inspection at one of
the legally established inspection warehouses; thus the shipment of
bulk tobacco was prohibited. Two inspectors were employed at each
warehouse, and a third was summoned in case of a dispute between the
two regular inspectors. These officials were bonded and were forbidden
under heavy penalties to pass bad tobacco, engage in the tobacco trade,
or to take rewards. Tobacco offered in payment of debts, public or
private, had to be inspected under the same conditions as that to be
exported. The inspectors were required to open the hogshead, extract
and carefully examine two samplings; all trash and unsound tobacco was
to be burned in the warehouse kiln in the presence and with the consent
of the owner. If the owner refused consent the entire hogshead was to
be destroyed. After the tobacco was sorted, the good tobacco was
repacked in the hogshead and the planter's distinguishing mark, net
weight, tare (weight of the hogshead), and name of inspection warehouse
were stamped on the hogshead.
A tobacco note was issued to the owner of each hogshead that passed the
inspection. These notes were legal tender within the county issued, and
adjacent counties, except when the counties were separated by a large
river. They circulated freely and eventually came into the possession
of a buyer who, by presenting them at the warehouse named on the notes,
exchanged them for the specified amount of tobacco. And these
particular notes were thus retired from circulation. The person finally
demanding possession of the tobacco was allowed to have the hogsheads
reinspected if he so desired. If he was dissatisfied with the quality,
he could appeal to three justices of the peace. If they found the
tobacco to be unsound or trashy, the inspectors paid a fee of five
shillings to each of the justices, and they were also held liable for
stamping the tobacco as being good; should the tobacco be declared
sound, the buyer paid the fee.
Parcels of tobacco weighing less than 200 pounds in 1730, later
increased to 350, and finally 950 pounds, were not to be exported, in
such cases the inspectors issued transfer notes. When the purchaser of
such tobacco had enough to fill a hogshead, the tobacco was prized and
the transfer notes were exchanged for a tobacco note. The tobacco could
then be exported. Such small parcels were often necessary to pay a
levy, or a creditor, or it might have been tobacco left over from the
crop after the last hogshead had been filled and prized. These tobacco
notes provided the only currency in Virginia until she resorted to the
printing press during the French and Indian War. By the end of the
eighteenth century the reputation of the inspectors and the value of
the tobacco notes began to decline, due primarily to lax inspecting.
Exporters and manufacturers frequently demanded that their tobacco be
reinspected by competent agents.
The inspection law was allowed to expire in October, 1775, but it was
revived the following October. During this period the payment of debts
in tobacco was made on the plantation of the debtor, and if the
creditor refused to accept the tobacco as sound and marketable, the
dispute was referred to two competent neighbors, one chosen by each of
the disputants.
Prior to 1776 tobacco that was damaged while stored in the public
warehouses was paid for by the colony, but provisions were made in 1776
that such a loss was to be borne by the owner of the tobacco. In 1778
this was amended to the effect that losses by fire while stored in the
warehouses would be paid for by the state. Four years later, owing to
the great losses that had been sustained by the owners of the tobacco,
the inspectors were held liable for all tobacco destroyed or damaged,
except by fire, flood, or the enemy. The state continued to guarantee
the tobacco against the fire hazard until well into the nineteenth
century.
The law requiring "refused" tobacco to be burned in the warehouse kiln
was repealed in 1805, and such tobacco could then be shipped anywhere
within the state of Virginia. Stemmers or manufacturers were required
to send a certificate of receipt of such refused tobacco purchased to
the auditor of public accounts in Richmond. These receipts were then
checked against the warehouse records of the amount of refused tobacco
sold. Finally, in 1826, the General Assembly legalized the exportation
of refused tobacco, provided the word "refused" was stamped on both
ends and two sides of the hogsheads in letters at least three inches in
length.
In 1730 three inspectors were appointed for each inspection by the
governor, with the advice and consent of the Council. This did not
always mean that there were three inspectors at each warehouse at all
times. Warehouses built on opposite banks of a creek or river were
frequently placed under the same inspection; that is, the three
inspectors divided their time at the two warehouses. In areas where the
production of tobacco declined from time to time, two warehouses were
frequently placed under the jurisdiction of one set of inspectors. And
if the quantity of tobacco produced in that particular area
necessitated separate inspections, the change was then made. The
inspection system was very flexible in this respect. The inspectors
were required to be on duty from October 1 to August 10 yearly, except
Sundays and holidays. By 1732 it was discovered that it was unnecessary
to have three inspectors on duty at all times. Consequently, the number
of regular inspectors was reduced to two, but a third was appointed to
be called upon when there was a dispute between the two regular
inspectors as to the quality of tobacco.
As the governor was able to choose the inspectors and place them at any
warehouse within the colony, the local county people began to complain
and demand that they be given more authority in this governmental
function. This procedure tended to provide the governor with the
opportunity to provide his friends with jobs regardless of their
qualifications. In 1738 the General Assembly enacted legislation
providing that the inspectors were to be appointed by the governor from
a slate of four candidates nominated by the local county courts. Where
two warehouses under one inspection were in different counties, two
candidates were to be nominated by each county. This procedure remained
unchanged until the middle of the nineteenth century.
The salaries of the inspectors were regulated by the General Assembly,
though the colony did not guarantee the sums after 1755. For the first
few years each inspector received £60 annually, and if the fees
collected were insufficient to pay their salary, the deficient amount
was made up out of public funds. After 1732 it was found that this
amount was too high and unequally allocated with respect to the amount
of individual services performed, as some warehouses received more
tobacco than others. So for the next few years salaries were determined
on the basis of the amount of tobacco inspected and ranged from £30 to
£50 annually. From 1755 to 1758 the inspectors received the amount set
by the legislature only if enough fees were collected by the inspectors
at their respective warehouses. During the next seven years the
inspectors received three shillings per hogshead, plus six pence for
nails used in recoopering the tobacco, instead of a stated salary. Out
of this the inspectors had to pay the proprietors of the warehouse
eight pence rent per hogshead. In 1765 the inspectors were again placed
on a flat salary basis, and for the next fifteen years their salaries
ranged from £25 to £70. After 1780 their annual salaries ranged from
about $100 at the smallest warehouses to about $330 at the largest.