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 packets 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, it is at an Underrate,

     My Sons Expences I shall not complan of, but
You must be sensible 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 positive orders are That my Sons
Robin and Charles, be Sent in to me According to the
Limitations I have set them, That is Robin to come
Away with the first Ships & Charles with one of the later
part of the Fleet unless he has a mind to come away with

     It is to no purpose to complain of the Act of Pa [rl]
=iament it is a very great Shock to me, I have hardly a
Servant that knows how neatly to pack a hogshead of Leaf Tobacco , My
Crops have been wholly stemmed for these thirty Years &
More, The increasing 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 scented Trade which
they were pretty much kept from by the stemming Tobacco
A Commodity they did not care to be concerned in, Cer=
=tainly these things will never hold long, nor will the
English merchants sit down Contented, & Suffer the Whole
Trade to be Wrested out of their hands, Our Way must
be while we are under this 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 stemmed
Tobacco as Is possible before the Act takes place, and that the
smokers 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 gone 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 with
Your Shipping, I remember the time when I have had
All my Crop Floating in November, and we planted very for=
=ward this Year and Shall house betimes, I shall leave
the rest to Your Consideration, Captain Richardson will
best Inform You of the Damages we have sustaind in
Our Crops, by a pretty smart storm not many days
ago, I am --