第434页 / 共2651页

Nobody will attempt to improve and cultivate in the same manner

the most fertile lands of Scotland, Ireland, or the corn

provinces of North America, though, from the more exact

administration of justice in these countries, more regular

returns might be expected.

In Virginia and Maryland, the cultivation of tobacco is

preferred, as most profitable, to that of corn. Tobacco might be

cultivated with advantage through the greater part of Europe;

but, in almost every part of Europe, it has become a principal

subject of taxation; and to collect a tax from every different

farm in the country where this plant might happen to be

cultivated, would be more difficult, it has been supposed, than

to levy one upon its importation at the custom-house. The

cultivation of tobacco has, upon this account, been most absurdly

prohibited through the greater part of Europe, which necessarily

gives a sort of monopoly to the countries where it is allowed;

and as Virginia and Maryland produce the greatest quantity of it,

they share largely, though with some competitors, in the

advantage of this monopoly. The cultivation of tobacco, however,

seems not to be so advantageous as that of sugar.