Lt. Gov. Gooch approached the problem of raising the income of the tobacco planters as a problem of raising the planter's profits, and of increasing the revenue of the crown. Spotswood may have had a similar objective, but he saw it as an opportunity to build a political party loyal to him through patronage. Or more bluntly, Spotswood was thinking of himself first, and of the colony second.
A key element in Gooch's plan was the call for an official inspection system, which would emphasize quality, not quantity. If the quality could be kept up, even an oversupply in one year would not depress prices; however, Gooch realized there were planters who saw any limitation on the tobacco they sold as a reduction of their income.
Before presenting any plan to the Assembly, Gooch held a conference of influential planters and merchants to discuss their ideas. A tentative plan evolved, to which the important people had contributed. He then pressed the Board of Trade in London to win their approval and to secure their blessing, if not their strong endorsement. In the proposal to the Board, Gooch emphasized the benefits to Britain, and downplayed the benefits to the planters.
One of his arguments to London was that if the planters could not earn a sufficient income, they would have to do things like making their own clothing instead of buying clothes from England. And he emphasized that the act would cut down on smuggling which deprived the Majesty of his Customs. If the trash tobacco were burned, as it would be proposed, then it could not be smuggled into Britain, which reduced Customs and depressed tobacco prices. By showing that it was a win-win situation, Gooch won the support of the English bureaucracy.
The other powerful interest group in England was the mercantile people. So at the same time that he presented his proposals to officialdom, Gooch made a presentation to the merchants, including M. Perry, a prominent trader with Virginia, and a member of Parliament. Perry informed Gooch that the merchants had no objections to the proposals.
All of these trans-Atlantic discussions took time -- more than a year after the initial discussion with the planters. On 21 May 1730, he laid his ideas before the House of Burgesses, telling them that his intention was, "...to promote the Welfare and Prosperity of this Province," through "...a prudent Regulation of your Trade." He made it clear that he was open to suggestions, and that this was not a take-it-or-leave-it act. Though he had not won a favorable vote on the proposal, the Burgesses did applaud his knowledge, judgment, interest in the colony, respectfulness, and his calmness. This had never been the case with Alexander Spotswood.
However, Gooch did not have a guarantee that the colonists would be receptive to tighter tobacco inspections. Just the fact that the merchants found no fault with the ideas was enough to spark automatic opposition by some of the planters. "If they are for it, I am agin it."
(23 May 01)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.