Virginia Tobacco Economy Boom (1620s)

Timeline

1. 1621–1624James River plantation belt · VirginiaRolfe's Orinoco sweet tobacco was welcomed by the London market for its superior quality over West Indies leaf; exports climbed rapidly in the early 1620s, colonists switched to tobacco, and individual plantation sizes grew.
2. 1622–1627Virginia Colony · VirginiaAlthough the 1622 Powhatan attack caused heavy casualties, high tobacco profits drove colonists to expand plantations up the James and York rivers; after the Virginia Company was dissolved in 1624, the royally administered colony still relied on tobacco duties and exports.
3. 1628–1630Jamestown and coastal warehouses · VirginiaTobacco became the colony's main medium of exchange and unit of taxation; plantation owners sustained production with indentured servants and a growing number of African laborers; by the late 1620s annual exports reached hundreds of thousands of pounds, establishing Virginia as British North America's leading tobacco region.