All public transactions were normally paid in tobacco, including provincial, county, and parish tax levies, as well as fees and salaries for secretaries, clerks, sheriffs, surveyors, church wardens, and clergymen. Virginians traded either the leaf itself or, more commonly, tobacco notes-receipts representing tobacco that had been inspected, weighed, and packaged for shipment. Tobacco backed much of eighteenth-century Virginia’s paper currency. When clergymen sued for their back wages, the controversy known as the Parsons’ Cause erupted and became a precedent for resistance to English authority. Reverend John Camm, meanwhile, took the protest to London and succeeded in having the act revoked, which set up a conflict between Lieutenant Governor Francis Fauquier and the power of the Crown. Reverend Jacob Rowe spoke so vehemently against it that he was forced to apologize to the House of Burgesses. They were less amenable to the second act, however. Although it reduced their annual salaries, relatively few Virginia clergymen objected to the 1755 act, which expired after ten months. The Two Penny Acts allowed vestries and county courts to collect taxes and pay salaries in money calculated at the usual market price for tobacco rather than in tobacco at windfall rates. Tobacco was Virginia’s principal export, but it also backed the colony’s currency, and these crop failures threatened Virginia’s system of taxation for support of local and provincial government, including the parishes and clergy of the Church of England. The General Assembly adopted the Two Penny Acts of 17 as temporary relief measures in response to the failure of the Virginia colony‘s tobacco crops.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |