USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The most important cash crop in Colonial America was tobacco, first cultivated by the English at their Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1610 CE by the merchant John Rolfe (l. 1585-1622 CE).

Detailed explanation-2: -Tobacco formed the basis of the colony’s economy: it was used to purchase the indentured servants and slaves to cultivate it, to pay local taxes and tithes, and to buy manufactured goods from England.

Detailed explanation-3: -Rolfe reacted to consumer demand by importing seed from the West Indies and cultivating the plant in the Jamestown colony. Those tobacco seeds became the seeds of a huge economic empire. By 1630, over a million and a half pounds of tobacco were being exported from Jamestown every year.

Detailed explanation-4: -During the 1700s tobacco was a very lucrative crop due to its high demand in Europe. The climate of the Chesapeake area in America lent itself very nicely to the cultivation of tobacco. The high European demand for tobacco led to a rise in the value of tobacco.

Detailed explanation-5: -Plant geneticists have established that tobacco’s centre of origin i.e the meeting place between a species’ genetic origin and the area in which it was first cultivated, is located in the Peruvian/Ecuadoraen Andes. Estimates for its first date of cultivation range from 5000-3000 BC.