How Does Tobacco Affect The Economy

The year was 1614, and the ship Elizabeth was setting off from the young English colony of Jamestown, bound for London with a load that included four barrels of tobacco, about 4,000 pounds. Few probably knew that those four barrels would change the entire economy of Virginia in less than a decade. More than any other crop or industry, tobacco shaped the development of the south. Southern colonists saw the Native Americans growing tobacco, and the settlers quickly accepted tobacco as their main tool of success. Tobacco provided more income than any other farm crop until the 21st Century. Tobacco plantations shaped the settlement of the south. Until after World War I the economy was dependent upon the weather conditions for developing and harvesting tobacco, and upon the price paid for tobacco by customers outside the south.
Farming Tabaco puts all of a region's profitable eggs in one basket, in contrast to the expanded economy. When prices for the staple crop are low, or supplies weakened by a bad growing season, the whole area can suffer. In the first half of the 1800's, Southern states were dependent upon cotton. Struggles …show more content…
With a desire to increase the amount of tobacco available, many American farmers took out credit loans from the British to increase the size of their landholdings as well as increase the number of slaves they owned. Much of this credit went to gentleman farmers, but the desire for tobacco was so strong that even middle class farmers found it easy to receive loans to increase their farm production. Many of these farmers opted not to pay back these loans however, and many in turn found themselves jailed toward the end of the century for not paying their debts.[13][14] Many of these debtors were small farmers, causing a further consolidation of smaller farms into larger