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48 HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
clergyman's salary. If you wanted to be married, you had to go to the rector
of your parish and pay him so many pounds of tobacco. Your wealth was
estimated in annual pounds of tobacco. It was, in fact, the only currency of
the country, and all the large commercial transactions were conducted in
inspector's bills (warehouse receipts for inspected tobacco of named quality
already in store and in the custody of the province's sworn inspectors) which
could always be exchanged (at a discount, of course) for good bills in London,
because they represented actual merchandise in hand and in bond. Here
was a basis, right to their hands, of a paper currency of the best sort in the
world for banking—small notes issued on a deposit of inspector's, bills—and
it has ever been a wonder why the Provincial Assemblies did not establish a
real credit currency on this basis, in which the demand for tobacco, a steady
and increasing one, would force the redemption of the notes at par—instead
of attempting the old impossible problem of an irredeemable currency as a
substitute for real money.
But tobacco went deeper still into the fabric of society. All the laws were
made more or less with reference to the staple, to protect it, to maintain its
value in price, to enhance its easy exchangeableness, so that many of the civil,
and some of the criminal processes, were sensibly colored and affected by it.
In wild Western regions, where a man's life often depends upon his horse, it
is the common law of society that the horse-thief is an outlaw whom any one
is justified in shooting on sight; so, in Maryland, where tobacco was the
staple, tobacco was protected and defended against some of the common usages
of society, instead of vice versa. Its purity was more fiercely defended than
the chastity of woman, and the forger of an inspector's note was to be whipped
and pilloried. Debts in tobacco were protected over debts in coin, and judgments, bonds and mortgages might be both given and paid in tobacco. The
man who burned a tobacco-house, or aided and abetted others in the arson,
was to suffer death without benefit of clergy. No tobacco could be sold unless
inspected; and to open a hogshead, whether inspected or not, and take any out
was felony, to be punished with whipping, the pillory, and restitution fourfold. Before inspector's notes were contrived, tobacco in bulk was a legal
tender, and, if the tender was refused, the debt was cancelled. The sale of
" trashy " tobacco was prohibited under penalty, and the informer got the fine.
The effects of exclusive tobacco cropping, under the old Maryland system, were undeniably bad. It led to slovenly husbandry and the continual
taking up of new lands, which not only yielded, even in their roughest
state, the largest crops, but produced also tobacco of the best quality.
When land was so cheap as not to be a material factor in the question,
he who had the most hoes at work was the best man. It is to this that
we owe the large importations of convicts and negroes into the province.
Unquestionably, tobacco made Maryland a slave State, and much poorer than
she would otherwise be. It led to the extravagant factor credit system
which has done so much to ruin our planters, just as it is now ruining the
| Title | History of Maryland - 2 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000073 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 48 HISTORY OF MARYLAND. clergyman's salary. If you wanted to be married, you had to go to the rector of your parish and pay him so many pounds of tobacco. Your wealth was estimated in annual pounds of tobacco. It was, in fact, the only currency of the country, and all the large commercial transactions were conducted in inspector's bills (warehouse receipts for inspected tobacco of named quality already in store and in the custody of the province's sworn inspectors) which could always be exchanged (at a discount, of course) for good bills in London, because they represented actual merchandise in hand and in bond. Here was a basis, right to their hands, of a paper currency of the best sort in the world for banking—small notes issued on a deposit of inspector's, bills—and it has ever been a wonder why the Provincial Assemblies did not establish a real credit currency on this basis, in which the demand for tobacco, a steady and increasing one, would force the redemption of the notes at par—instead of attempting the old impossible problem of an irredeemable currency as a substitute for real money. But tobacco went deeper still into the fabric of society. All the laws were made more or less with reference to the staple, to protect it, to maintain its value in price, to enhance its easy exchangeableness, so that many of the civil, and some of the criminal processes, were sensibly colored and affected by it. In wild Western regions, where a man's life often depends upon his horse, it is the common law of society that the horse-thief is an outlaw whom any one is justified in shooting on sight; so, in Maryland, where tobacco was the staple, tobacco was protected and defended against some of the common usages of society, instead of vice versa. Its purity was more fiercely defended than the chastity of woman, and the forger of an inspector's note was to be whipped and pilloried. Debts in tobacco were protected over debts in coin, and judgments, bonds and mortgages might be both given and paid in tobacco. The man who burned a tobacco-house, or aided and abetted others in the arson, was to suffer death without benefit of clergy. No tobacco could be sold unless inspected; and to open a hogshead, whether inspected or not, and take any out was felony, to be punished with whipping, the pillory, and restitution fourfold. Before inspector's notes were contrived, tobacco in bulk was a legal tender, and, if the tender was refused, the debt was cancelled. The sale of " trashy " tobacco was prohibited under penalty, and the informer got the fine. The effects of exclusive tobacco cropping, under the old Maryland system, were undeniably bad. It led to slovenly husbandry and the continual taking up of new lands, which not only yielded, even in their roughest state, the largest crops, but produced also tobacco of the best quality. When land was so cheap as not to be a material factor in the question, he who had the most hoes at work was the best man. It is to this that we owe the large importations of convicts and negroes into the province. Unquestionably, tobacco made Maryland a slave State, and much poorer than she would otherwise be. It led to the extravagant factor credit system which has done so much to ruin our planters, just as it is now ruining the |
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