One cannot study the history of colonial America, especially Virginia, without realizing the significance of tobacco. In 1612, John Rolfe was the first in Jamestown to grow marketable tobacco after obtaining superior seed from the West Indies, where the Spanish had outlawed the sale of tobacco seed to foreigners on penalty of death. Tobacco helped early colonial Virginia move from subsistence to exchange. Rothbard notes that “a man’s labor in tobacco could earn six times as much as grain.” Therefore, most switched to producing tobacco. Tobacco production exploded: 1616—2.5 thousand pounds 1618—50,000 pounds 1620—119,000 pounds 1624—203,000 pounds 1672—17.5 million pounds 1688—28 million poun... [Read more]