Our latest “Document of the Week” was chosen by our Academic Liaison Manger, Dr Catherine Bateson. It is a page from British Customs imports and exports accounts, covering the period December 1719 to December 1720.
With an estimated value of £221,181.15s.10d., just one shipment of tobacco from the American colonies of Virginia and Maryland around 1719–1720 could generate a fortune for all those involved in the selling, importation, and buying process of this key trans-Atlantic commodity. In today’s money, the tobacco listed on this particular selected Customs House ledger page would be in excess of £25 million—a truly staggering amount for a small crop that had driven the burgeoning North American economy of the Chesapeake region and its colonial settlers. This image comes from one early eighteenth-century import list, just over one hundred years since English trading companies and settlers took over the land. Alongside the tobacco, this shipment to London contained useful supplies of tallow and wax, several quantities of beer, fortified wine and rum, and supplies of wood, including that from American redwood trees. More exotic New World items were also onboard, such as cocoa nuts (for making chocolate) and tortoise shells worth £21.15s. Animal skins were likewise exported, including elk, muskrat, racoon, and deer fur, which was the second most valuable commodity after the tobacco, though at a comparatively low £2,264.
While these Customs ledgers show the importance of trade and commodity purchases, and their relative value to the economies of London traders and colonial sellers, one crucial aspect of this period’s imports and exports process is hidden. Tobacco was the cash crop of colonial Virginia and Maryland; it was not only traded, sold, and smoked, but even used as a currency with indigenous traders in exchange for other items (such as the animal fur and beads). Yet by the 17-teens, this Atlantic World commodity was almost exclusively picked by enslaved African hands who would never see any of that vast monetary figure trickle down for their labour. Behind the vast figure of over £221,000 are the lives of those on the Virginian plantations and farms where the tobacco originated from—these ledgers show the economic output of enslaved labour.
It is also worth noting that the bottom of the image details imports on the same ship from the “West Indies in general”, including £187.10s worth of indigo plant. Within twenty years of this shipment to London, another American colonial region—notably South Carolina—would turn indigo into its cash crop on a comparable level domestically with tobacco. This too was cultivated through the knowledge and labour of African and Caribbean enslaved peoples. Therefore, while these Customs statistics and commodity lists reveal day-to-day colonial trade to Britain, they also trace slavery’s growth as part of that economic development, and the monetary injustice the system profited from.
Where to find this document
This page comes from our primary source collection, British Mercantile Trade Statistics, 1662–1809. Consisting of over 47,000 images, it contains documents from The National Archives (UK) relating to British trade and shipping through naval and mercantile routes over almost 150 years. The collection includes importation and Customs ledgers showing supply routes and statistics that trace the growth of British and global commerce, particularly in the British Atlantic World and early decades of the British empire. Visit the collection page to learn more.