In general tobacco prices varied from county to county -- as well as from
year to year. Sweet Scented tobacco -- which brought premium prices in
London -- was grown from York and New Kent northward across the York River
to Middlesex and the other counties on the south shore of the Rapphannock.
Northern Neck tobacco, Southside tobacco (anything from south of the James
in the 17th and early 18th century, and from the counties on the north shore
of the James (Warwick up to Henrico) grew Orinocco tobacco which was
generally favored by the importers in the Out Ports (any English port other
than London). Orinocco was also the first choice of the Scots after the Act
of Union let them into the trade (1713). Orinocco general was priced less.
You might say it was quality versus quantity since much more Orinocco was
eventually produced than Sweet Scented.
I have a huge quantity of price citations at home -- sorry I have to work
for a living -- so I can't give you a price off hand, but if you can tell me
the county, or at least the region you are interested in, I'll be happy to
see if I can come up with a price.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Diana Bennett [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 24 April 2001 3:09 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Cent ??
>
>
> Dear Peter:
>
> Do you know what 300 pounds of tobacco was worth in 1697?
>
> Diana
>
> "Peter V. Bergstrom" wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 9 Nov 2000 16:38:49 EST, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> >
> > > While reading some Northern Neck Court records from
> 1780s, I came
> > across
> > >"Tobacco at Twenty Shillings per Cent." What is a Cent??
> > > It would seem from the text that a Cent is a unit of weight.
> > >
> > > In Court cases where a fine was levied, a fine would
> read "Twenty
> > >Shillings or Two hundred pounds of Tobacco." So is a
> Cent. 200 lb. of
> > >tobacco?
> > >
> > > Hope someone can help me with this.
> > >
> > > Thanks, Bill Balderson
> > >
> > >To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see
> the instructions
> > >at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
> >
> > I was just searching the list archive on tobacco -- just a matter of
> > curiosity I guess, but I came across this query from last
> fall and I wasn't
> > sure if it ever generated an answer.
> >
> > Tobacco prices were quoted by the hundred weight in
> Colonial Virginia which
> > was usually abbreviated as Cwt or Cent.
> >
> > In America the hundred weight was given as 100 pounds, but
> in England a Cwt
> > was 112 pounds. Although this doesn't seem to have been a
> confusing thing
> > for colonials, it sure can be tough on modern researchers.
> If you see a
> > Virginia price quoute such as 10/Cwt which means 10
> shillings per hundred
> > weight you get a price of 1.2d/pound of tobacco -- 1.2
> pence per pound
> > (10sX12d=120 pence/100 pounds of tobacco to get 1.2 pence/pound).
> >
> > In England this same quote of 10/Cwt would work out to 120 pence/112
> > pounds, or about 1.07 pence per pound. Of course the
> Virginians would be
> > using "current money" more likely than sterling money, so those two
> > quotes would be even farther apart. [If you want to know
> about exchange
> > rates -- that's a whole other story ...]
> >
> > I hope this clears up some of the confusion about colonial
> and English
> > weights and measures.
> >
> > Peter
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see
> the instructions
> > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
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> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
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