Existing comment:
The World's Largest Tobacco Production Center
In 1730, a "Warehouse Act" designated the falls of the James River a center of tobacco trade. A century later, tobacco remained the staple crop, and the reach of canals and railroads encouraged its production in the Piedmont and its export beyond England to Europe and Australia. By the 1840s, with fifty tobacco factories, Richmond had become the world's largest tobacco production center. |