The Significance of Credit in the Tobacco Consignment Trade

HE trade in tobacco between Virginia and Great Britain has always been recognized as of paramount importance in Virginia's economic and political development. old saying that the story of Virginia is but the story of tobacco is by no means a gross exaggeration. It was this Indian plant, . . . which determined the character of the life of the colony and shaped its destinies for two and a half centuries.'1 In recent years several studies of the growing importance of the Scottish merchants in this trade during the eighteenth century have appeared.2 The rise of the Scots meant that the trade was turning away from its formerly predominant marketing method, consignment, towards direct purchase as the major method of transferring ownership of tobacco from planters in Virginia to buyers in Great Britain. Despite this development, the consignment merchants continued to exert a significant influence on the tobacco trade and on the general economy of Virginia right up to the outbreak of the Revolution. One consignment firm was John Norton & Sons. This firm, like other consignment merchants, was utterly dependent upon credit, not only as a major source of profit but also as the very basis of its entire trading structure. The story of this firm in Virginia began inconspicuously in the 174.0's

Business · Consignment · Economics · Political science · American History and Culture · Law

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