THE CASE OF THE MERCHANTS, AND PLANTERS, TRADING TO, AND RESIDING IN, VIRGINIA, AND MARYLAND [caption title].
[Virginia]:
[London? 1713]. Broadsheet. 2pp., including printed docket title on verso. Dbd. Small folio. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin. Trimmed close in upper margin, with some loss to printed page numbers. Some foxing. Very good. In a cloth clamshell case, leather label. An early British political leaflet lobbying Parliament for lower duties on tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland and possible subsidies for tobacco farmers in those colonies. The authors contend that shipping from the New World causes American tobacco to be expensive enough in foreign markets without the added cost of customs. Farmers in Holland and Germany, they write, have already begun planting their own tobacco crops in Europe, and Virginia planters have begun turning to textile manufacture as a new source of income, greatly diminishing English exports to the colonies. This document is among the earliest examples of commercial lobbying literature, which began proliferating quickly in the lobby of the House of Commons over the next several years, with the accession of King George I and the British general election of 1715. Scarce, with ESTC recording copies at four locations in the U.K. and five in the U.S. GOLDSMITHS' 5003. HANSON 1895. SABIN 100440.
(Item ID: WRCAM39806) $2,500.00