land alone averaged 151,934l. "What part of this commodity," says Davenant, " is for their own consumption, and what part they re-export to other countries, does not appear to me; but so far is certain—when corn bears a high price in foreign markets they send large cargoes of it to the places where it finds a good vent; and it has been known that in years of scarcity they bring us back our own wheat, because of the premium we give upon exportation, and which they are enabled to do by having large granaries almost in every great town, wherein they store large quantities in cheap years, to answer the demands of other countries." Of tobacco, our average annual importation from Virginia, for the ten years from 1700 to 1709 inclusive, had been 28,858,666 lbs.; and we had annually re-exported to foreign countries 17,598,007 lbs., of which quantity Holland alone took from us 7,851,157 lbs., or not much less than the half. "This product of our plantations," Davenant observes, "earned to Holland, brings considerable profit to that country; besides that the manufacturing of it, when there, employs a great number of their people. What proportion of it they consume themselves cannot well be stated; but so far is known, that they mix it with the tobacco of their own growth, viz., for France, one-third inland and two-thirds Virginia; making it finer or coarser, and adding to or diminishing the quantity of Virginia, and making some up only with our tobacco-stalks mixed with their own leaves, according to the use of the country whereunto they export it," According to an account which he had seen, and which he believed to be authentic, the Dutch had come by the year 1706 to grow at home, in their three provinces of Utrecht, Guelderland, Overyssel, and part of the duchy of Cleves, 13,000,000 lbs. of tobacco, although seven years before they did not raise more than 8,000,000 lbs. It appears from this account that, in the beginning of the last century, the consumption of tobacco in England exceeded 11,000.000 lbs.; at present, with probably thrice the population, it is only about 16,000,000 lbs. Nor is our entire annual importation of tobacco much
