Robert Carter writes to London merchant William Dawkins, August 1, 1723, to inform the merchant that he has received his packets by Captain Hopkins. He issues orders that his sons Robert and Charles, then in England at school, be returned to the colony so as to arrive by April if possible. The new act of Parliament (that will prohibit the importion of stemmed tobacco into England) will greatly affect his operations as he does not have servants who know how to pack leaf tobacco for shipment. He also believes that the Scots merchants will enter the sweet scented tobacco trade which they have avoided heretofore. His letter closes with comments on what he and other planters will need to do in the months before the act goes into effect.

     Since the Sealing the Sealing up of my
Lettrs. Your Packetts by Hopkins are come to hand, You may
believe they bring a great deal of Mortification with them
but afflictions make wise, I Shall Endeavour to make that use
of them, -- I shall only Observe that whenever Mr. Levitt
buys, tis at an Underrate,

     My Sons Expences I shall not complan of, but
You must be Sencible that the Prices we are brot, to will but
Very Illy keep pace with these things, however I shall
not be long under them, My Possitive ordrs. are That my Sons
Robin and Charles, be Sent in to me According to the
Limitations I have Sett them, That is Robin to come
Away with the first Ships & Charles with one of the Latter
part of the Fleet unless he has a mind to come away wth.

     It is to no purpose to complain of the Act of Pa[rl]
=iament tis a very great Shock to me, I have hardly a
Servt. that knows how neatly to ^pack a hhd of Leaf Tobo., My
Crops have bin wholly Stemd for these thirty Years &
More, The Encreasing of the Kings Revenue by It I be=
=lieve wll be found to be a Great Mistake, I Apprehend
a New Door of Fraud will be now open for the Scotch they
will drive furiously into the Sweat Sented Trade which
they were pretty much kept from by the Steming Tobo.
A Commodity they did not care to be concernd in, Cer=
=tainly these things will never hold long, nor will the
Eng. Merchts. Sett down Contented, & Suffer the Whole
Trade to be Wrested out of their hands, Our Way must
be while we are under ths. prohibition, to heave away
as much as our Stems amounted to, which I believe
Will be found to bring us pretty near a Par in Respect
to the Quantity.

     You Encourage the getting home as much Stemd
Tobo. as Is possible before the Act takes place, and that the
Smoakers when they know they are to have no more
will be fond of it, My thinks tat this very Consideration
Should raise the Price of that, thats now gon. Should we
Stem the forwardest of our Crops, & no Ships come Early
Enough to return in time, or any Accident happen to
delay them, all will be lost, but we Shall better know
how to govern ourselves, by the Measures You take wth.
Your Shipping, I remember the time when I have had
All my Crop Floating in Novr., and we planted very for=
=ward this Year and Shall house betimes, I shall leave
the rest to Your Consideration, Capt. Richardson will
best Inform You of the Damages we have sustaind in
Our Crops, by a pretty smart Storme not many days
ago, I am --