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We as a group have researched early Jamestown in order to answer some key questions about the colony. These questions where not easy to answer and required some hard work. Enjoy the blog and we hope you learn something about early Jamestown that you did not know before.

How did the mono-crop save colonists from economic ruin, but ultimately fail?

We as a group have found from our research that , the settlers of Jamestown discovered nothing of value to start their settlement, they grew tobacco in an attempt to save the colony and it flourished. Tobacco became their sole source of economic drive and Jamestown began to develop after adopting the mono-crop.   

But Jamestown’s sole dependency on tobacco would end up being their biggest mistake. The vast majority of the Jamestown settlers were tobacco farmers and little else in society developed. Even the indentured servants had land marked where they planned to grow their tobacco when free. The larger landholders dominated the smaller farmers and the one item of trade they had began to be regulated by Parliament. 

The navigation act in 1660 further crippled the smaller farmer as specific goods, including tobacco be sold only to Parliament.  When the settlers were no longer able to sell to higher demanding buyers like the Dutch, they began to struggle more. It was possible for the colonists to slip past the English law still, but when war broke out between England and the Netherlands, trade became impossible.

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