Cotton
is an alternative to hemp in many applications, including but not limited
to cloth; but it has short fibers, and is neither as strong nor as durable.
However, once Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin (1793), cotton fibers
became much cheaper to process than hemp — especially American cotton
which was cultivated and picked by enslaved Africans. The cheap American
product helped kill off Britain's hemp-based textile markets; the British,
in fact, converted to using American cotton well before the US Civil War.
That put many British textile workers out of a job-It also devastated
India's economy and caused extreme economic hardship there: hemp was India's
most important export and England was its one and only customer. This
left India dependent on England for finished goods, including fabrics,
but with no way of paying for them. Mahatma Gandhi figured out that India's
massive poverty was largely due to her dependence on British-made fabrics,
now made from cotton that was not grown in India. He also realized that
India would never be free of British rule until she began developing her
own industries and became economically self sufficient. Gandhi began a
boycott of all British products, particularly textiles, and as an example
to his followers he abandoned his store-bought European-style suits and
dressed himself in simple cloth — hemp cloth, which he spun and
wove himself. India's hemp-based textile industry quickly became a reality
and the importation of British made fabrics immediately declined. Gandhi's
strategy proved extremely effective. The British realized that without
a market for their pnxlucts it was not economically feasible to continue
their domination o[ India, and they left — relatively uneventfully.
THE GROWTH OF INFANT AMERICA
America's connection with Cannabis (hemp) is both interesting and ironic.
The cultivation of hemp was a primary reason for America's colonization,
yet the United States has led the worldwide effort to criminalize the
cultivation and utilization of Cannabis.
Initially, the British didn't expect much hemp from its fledgling Jamestown
colony; but they did expect, as much as possible, that the colony would
begin paying its own way. The Virginia Company, by decree of King James
I in 1619, ordered ever)' colonist (property owner) to grow 100 plants
specifically for export. Thus, England's only colony in America began
to grow hemp in order to meet this obligation and, soon, to serve a growing
demand in other colonies. Around 1629, a ship-building facility was established
in Massachusetts rhat used a great deal of hemp. There were rope-walks
producing rope and cordage, too, and many farms had small spinning operations
to produce fabrics. Of course, every family's clothing and household linens
were also routinely made at home.
The colonists began to grow (and export) tobacco, as well. The colonists
had learned to smoke tobacco from the local Indians, and smoking quickly
became fashionable both in the Virginia and in Europe. Tobacco was exclusively
an American product, fostered by Virginia's warm climate, and it soon
became the colony's number one export. Still, the colonies grew hemp as
an alternative source of income to balance out those times when a glut
of tobacco drove down prices.
After 1663. the Jamestown colony concentrated on tobacco and the bulk
of Virginia's hemp cultivation moved to Kentucky and the Carolinas. The
massive cultivation of Cannabis is reflected in town names like Hempstead
and Hemp Hill, which can be found in many states east of the Mississippi.
The success of the Jamestown colony encouraged more settlers to come to
America, and some of the next wave were Dutchmen. The Dutch represented
a real economic threat to the British. Coming from a relatively small,
industrialized country (like England), they established their New Netherlands
settlement (later renamed New Amsterdam, and later. New York) in 1624,
which quickly became a thriving, prosperous little community. The British
responded to the Dutch presence by substantially increasing their efforts
to populate and establish a dominant influence in America. To entice even
more migration, the British Crown offered free transportation, free land
— and free hemp seeds. England even made a standing offer to purchase
the hemp the colonists produced, which gave them more economic security
than they would have had at home.
The British Crown also increased the number of colonies in America by
issuing a royal grant to Lord Baltimore to establish the Maryland Colony
in 1632 and similar grants to Captain John Mason to establish the New
Hampshire colony in 1635 and to Roger Williams to establish the Rhode
Island colony in 1636. The Dutch weren't their only concern: in 1638,
the Swedes established a settlement in Wilmington, Delaware. Unfortunately
for the Swedes, they made a fatal mistake in taking over a Dutch outpost
in 1654, and the New Amsterdam Dutch retaliated a year later by ousting
the Swedes.
The Dutch were astute businessmen and traders. By 1650, they were doing
more business with the colonies than the British were. The British Parliament
responded by imposing the first of several trade restrictions on its American
colonies, which forbid the colonies from trading with foreign merchants
without a special license. In 1651, they went a step further and passed
the Navigation Act, forbidding their colonies from importing or exporting
goods via non-English owned ships. Given the lack of British ships, this
caused shortages in the colonies. War actually broke out between the British
and Dutch (1652-54) because of the Navigation Act. The British won, enabling
England to again dominate trade with the colonies. In 1660, the British
Parliament expanded the Navigation Act, regulating colonial commerce to
suit England's needs. Specific commodities including "indigo"
(which seems to have been a colloquial name for Indian hemp), sugar, and
tobacco could only be shipped to British ports.
England's need for hemp continued to increase, which meant the)' were
willing to pay more for it. They began offering a pound of tobacco for
every pound of hemp, an offer they doubled in 1662. That was obviously
meant to encourage the cultivation of hemp in the Northern colonies, where
tobacco was considered something of a luxury. It was also meant to encourage
exportation. The vast majority of America's colonial farmers grew hemp
but most of it was used domestically. That did not help the mother country.
In Britain, the hemp industry continued its rapid growth but ran into
a labor shortage caused by so many people migrating to America (and by
the dispersion of its army and navy all over the world). London took advantage
of unrest on the Continent to begin enticing people to cross the Channel
and move to England. Again, from Ernest Able,
To induce hemp workers who were fleeing persecution in Europe to seek
refuge in England. Parliament passed a law in 166J that any foreigner
who settled in England or Wales and established a hemp related industry
within three years would, upon taking the oath of allegiance to the king,
be accorded the same rights and privileges as natural-bom citizens.
The British expanded their settlements on America's East Coast, but they
were slow to move west. This allowed the French to settle the area around
what would become Chicago, and from there the French explorer LaSalle
moved south, along the Mississippi, to the location of today's New Orleans,
claiming the Mississippi River and all the land surrounding it for France
in 1682.
At the same time Spain was consolidating its grasp on large areas further
west and to the south, including much of what we know as Catifomia, Colorado
and the other .south we stem states, and of course Mexico. However, neither
the French nor the Spanish were settling or farming the land in great
numbers; the Spanish were searching for gold and the French were primarily
trapping for fur. Only the British and Dutch made a concerted effort to
colonize America. All of Europe and Asia were using hemp, but they all
had enough land to grow what they needed. AH except the British and Dutch.
Two years after the British established the Carolina colony in 1663, Charles
II ordered a 300-man force of British troops to seize the New Amsterdam
settlement from the Dutch. Once that was accomplished. Charles II renamed
it New York in honor of his brother James, the Duke of York and future
English King. The Dutch recaptured New York in 1673 but ceded it back
to the British in 1674, leaving England in virtual control of colonial
America. The British went on to establish Pennsylvania in 1681, Delaware
in 1682, and Georgia, the last British colony in America, in 1733.
The founder of Georgia, James Oglethorp, recommended .settling the area
along the Savannah River, saying:
It is proposed the families there settled shall plant hemp and flax to
be sent un manufactured to England, whereby in time much ready money will
be saved in this Kingdom, which now goes out to other countries (Russia)
for the purchase of these goods, and they will also be able to supply
us \\ith a gteat deal of good timber. Tis possible too they may raise
white mulberry trees and send us good raw silk. But at the worst they
will be able to live there, and defend that country from the insults of
their neighbors, and London will be eased of maintaining a number of families
which being let out of jail have at present no visible way to subsist
In 1705, the English Parliament passed the Trade Act, expanding the number
of colonial products that could be exported only to English ports; these
again included hemp, described as "naval stores." The Trade
Act expired in 171J, but the bounties continued on naval stores for another
eleven years, and the subsidy on hemp continued for an additional 16 years.
Many of America's founding fathers became wealthy by producing hemp or
hemp products, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and one of
America's richest colonists, Robert "King" Carter. (Jefferson
later abandoned his cultivation and spinning of hemp because he felt it
was too hard on his slaves.) Jefferson received the first US patent for
his invention of a machine that would break hemp (that is, start the process
of extracting the fibers). Even Ben Franklin's wealth was derived from
hemp — he was America's leading paper producer, and it was all made
from hemp. Alexander Hamilton wrote a Treasury notice about the commodity
in the 1790s: "Flax and hemp: Manufacturers of these articles have
so much affinity to each other, and they are so often blended, that they
may with advantage be considered in conjunction."
The value of hemp was universally recognized and the colonists commonly
used raw hemp as a barter medium. Even the colonial governments, Virginia
in 1682, Maryland in 168} and Pennsylvania in 1706, allowed farmers to
pay one-fourth of their taxes in hemp. This further encouraged the cultivation
of hemp and promoted the economic well-being of the colony.
HEMP IN THE COLONIES
While most historians agree that colonial America was prosperous well
before the mid-18th century, they do not really explain the source of
that prosperity. Colonial America was an agrarian society, with 95% of
the population involved in farming. But agrarian societies historically
do not produce widespread wealth and prosperity. A cash crop like tobacco
can produce prosperity; hut far from all colonial farmers were producing
tobacco and. although smoking quickly became fashionable, not enough people
were smoking to account for the prosperity that existed in the colonies.
Tobacco may have been America's premier cash export, but it was hemp that
fueled the economic machine.
British colonial policy was meant to discourage industrialization; colonies
were supposed to provide raw materials and serve as new markets for English
finished goods. Hemp was the raw material England most needed, and they
basically established their colonies worldwide as hemp farms. The plan
backfired, however, and most American hemp was retained for local use.
Just like their Chinese, Venetians, and English predecessors, colonial-era
Americans processed the raw hemp into finished goods — rope, cloth,
and paper. These industries rose up like an evil genie to compete with
Britain's own domestic industries.
The Crown did everything it could to prevent competition — including
forbidding the exportation of any machinery or machinery plans or parts
to the colonies. Unfortunately for the British, the colonists didn't need
British-made machinery, plans, or parts, as many of them had grown up
in England and learned through apprenticeship all they needed to know
to make their own.
The industrialization of colonial America began innocently enough. The
first industry in America was textiles. The people of the Jamestown colony,
which started in 1607, as well as the Pilgrims who arrived in 1620, needed
clothing and household linens. Soon, fed by the abundance of lush forests,
America's first shipbuilding facility was established in the Plymouth
colony by the Massachusetts Bay company in 1629, and the need for rope
and sail to outfit those ships quickly created a burgeoning domestic market
for all the local hemp. The abundance of wood also encouraged craftsmen
to establish cottage industries producing furniture and cabinetry. Gradually,
the thriving domestic industries made America independent from England;
and so, very little raw hemp was ever exported to England despite the
fine words. For more than two centuries, in economic terms hemp was the
most important agricultural crop America produced.
Colonial America was rich in natural resources, but in those days there
was not much of a cash economy. People grew, made, or traded for what
they needed. Farmers" wives and daughters would spin and weave their
own cloth, from which they made the family's clothing and linens (bed
sheets, towels, napkins, handkerchiefs, and tablecloths). The weekly gathering
of the local women ("spinning bees" or "quilting bees,"
where many hands would help make quick work of a hig project or. at least,
pleasant conversation would mask the drudgery of endless repetitive tasks)
was about the only social contact most colonialists had with their neighbors.
An individual or a sewing circle that produced better work than others
might lead to a small business in the trading or bartering of cltith and/or
clothing, which might bring a family a little more money. Before long,
some of the larger hemp farmers started large scale spinning operations,
thus establishing America's fledgling textile industry.
The British were not particularly concerned about colonial housewives
producing homemade fabrics for their own use, but they did become extremely
concerned by around 1718 when a group of professional spinners and weavers
arrived in Boston from Ireland. In the years following, the quality, quantity,
and variety of America made textiles dramatically improved. This really
marked the beginning of America's textile industry. That was a genuine
threat; but the British were tied up in Ireland and India and were fighting
almost continually with the French.
At just this time, American colonists also began producing their own paper
— hemp-based paper — which they went on to use to produce
their own newspapers and books. Until 1883, 75-90% of all the paper the
world produced was made with hemp fiber.
All this still left England hungry for hemp. The British were at war with
the people of Ireland — for some 160 years; they were fighting the
Portuguese, Hutch, French and Indians for control of India. And they were
involved in the very costly endeavor of colonizing and defending their
America colonies from the Spanish, French, and native Indians to ensure
their dominance in North America. The extraordinarily bold and aggressive
manner in which the British pursued their interests is a sign of their
desperation. Either they underestimated the cost of acquiring control
or they decided the alternative was too grim.
And, although their resources were stretched to the limits, they were
extraordinarily successful in their efforts — taking control of
Ireland in 1690, and India in 1760; and they were very much in control
in America. In fact, most Americans were happy living under the protection
of the British Crown. For most, living conditions in colonial America
were good (far better than in England), taxes were reasonably low; and
with the British busy in Ireland and India, there were few British soldiers
roaming the country enforcing the king's will. The British did maintain
a token force in the colonies, but even in the French and Indian Wars
it was predominantly American colonists, not British troops, who did the
fighting.
Home
|
