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England maintained economic control of its colonies by restricting the types of products that could be manufactured
there. This included iron hardware, furniture, and other finished products. In addition, England restricted the use of hard currency within the colonies. Volumes of tobacco, the staple crop, were
used as tender for financial transactions. Records show that the construction of St. Lukeās Episcopal Church in Church Hill cost 140,000 pounds of tobacco, which was collected from the residents of the
parish. The wealth of the colony was measured on the scales of the tobacco warehouses and in the account books kept by the English and Scottish merchants who traded with the planters.
The profits from tobacco built such estates as Wye plantation and wealthy towns like St. Michaels. However, the
tobacco market was precarious. Global dips in demand for the crop precipitated local economic recessions. Near the end of the 18th century turmoil in Europe dissolved much of the demand for tobacco. Local
planters and farmers were hard hit. Resentment sparked talk of revolution. The Eastern Shore population was divided in its loyalties. Outrage over the treatment of the colonies by the Crown and other measures
taken by Parliament fueled the smoldering anxieties. This flashed into rage on May 23, 1774, when residents of Chestertown held their own Tea Party and dumped a shipment of the heavily-taxed commodity into the
Chester River.
The Revolution was not fought on the Eastern Shore, but the new nationās leaders often traveled through this region when
passing between Virginia and Philadelphia. George Washington was closely tied to the Kent County area. Through a large donation of effort and money he helped found Washington College in
Chestertown.
By the Revolutionary period, local planters had shifted from tobacco cultivation to grain and cereal production. Erratic
fluctuations in tobacco prices encouraged this change in the mid-18th century. Wheat was a more stable, less labor-intensive crop than tobacco. This shift resulted in a reorientation of the region toward
Philadelphia. Merchants from that area invested heavily in mills in this region in order to secure the crops. Another result was the transformation of the landscape from the smaller, constantly shifting
fields of tobacco cultivation to the larger, more orderly fields found across the area today.
With an increasing demand for grain in Europe, fed in part by the Napoleonic Wars, farms, plantations, and towns
grew. The first quarter of the 19th century was a period of growth for the region until the market dissolved at the end of these wars decades later.
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