sent to London. But more and more Amsterdam was becoming the chief commercial mart of Europe and the number of the Dutch ships was exceeded only by those of Great Britain. On the other hand the low rates charged by the Dutch for transportation of the tobacco abroad stood in favor of marketing the produce in Amsterdam.
At first, however, Herrman did not confine his traffic in tobacco exclusively with Virginia. About the year 1629 the culture of tobacco was introduced into New Netherland by Thomas Hall, the first Virginian to settle in the Dutch colony. Herrman, eager to produce the commodity in such near proximity, encouraged the burgers to cultivate the plant; he himself growing it on his own bouwery. By 1640 he was shipping large quantities from both Virginia and New Netherland.[1] But the severity of the climate of the northern colony was found to be such that the quality of the tobacco grown there was found inferior to the Virginia product; and European merchants more and more demanded that grown in the southern colony. After 1640 the cultivation of the plant gradually declined in New Netherland and was confined essentially to Virginia and the newly opened Maryland plantations.
About the year 1650 he began to systematize his tobacco trade; and for a few years, it seems, he was able to establish a monopoly in the staple. In this enterprise were associated Dr.
- ↑ As early as 1658 Herrman was known in both America and Europe as the “beginner of the Virginia tobacco trade” (Dutch Mss. Pt. 1 Calendar of Hist. Mss, p. 204). There are vague indications that he began the trade in 1629 though it is probable that at that early date, when he was an agent for the Dutch West India Company, he shipped very small quantities from Virginia of tobacco locally grown by Thomas Hall and others on Manhattan Island. In 1626 tobacco exports from Virginia amounted to only 500,000 pounds. By 1629 tobacco exports totaled nearly 1,500,000 pounds. (MacInnes, C. M. Early English Tobacco Trade, 1926, p. 134.) See also Woodrow Wilson’s Hist, of American People, Vol. II. p. 17.
