WI No tobacco from the new world

Although it's worth noting that there would still be some English colonisation in the South. Rice, indigo (assuming similar British policy on subsidies as in OTL) and long-staple cotton can still be grown quite viably in parts of the South. Those are more limited in terms of where they can be grown - basically, warmer and coastal - but still decently profitable.

I don't think we can assume that settlement of the South would have continued anyway.

Without tobacco, the Virginia colony may well have been abandoned - it took a good 15 years (and considerable loss of lives and capital during that time) to get off the ground IOTL and that was with tobacco. Without it, things would have been very dicy. And if Virginia were abandoned, that would have had to have been hugely discouraging. This would have been the second failed colony in the region (Roanoke Island in the 1580s being the other). At that point there is no guarantee England would continue to back colonial ventures in the region at all. It might stick to the Caribbean.
 
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Without tobacco, the Virginia colony may well have been abandoned - it took a good 15 years (and considerable loss of lives and capital during that time) to get off the ground IOTL and that was with tobacco. If it's abandoned, there is no guarantee England would continue to back colonial ventures in the region at all. It might stick to the Caribbean.

The OTL Virginia colony could certainly fail sans tobacco. (I was using the OTL colonial names as shorthand for the regions in question, not as an assumption that the colonies would be exactly the same.). I don't know of another potential cash crop in Virginia which has anything like the potential of tobacco.

More generally, though, the non-economic factors for English colonisation of North America would still be around. (Religion, backing the wrong horse during the ECW, etc.). This would get some settlement in North America. So would the attraction of South Carolina, which in OTL was effectively set up as a spinoff from Caribbean colonisation anyway (Barbados). The secondary aspect of supplying the Carribean colonies would then still develop. Staple crops, naval supplies, even Southern furs (the deerskin trade). Nowhere near as profitable as Virginia was in OTL, but still likely some form of colonisation.
 
Could be interesting to see Quakers and Delaware Valley settlers setting up shop in *Virginia and *North Carolina then, perhaps.
 
Indentured servitude means releasing the servants after ten years. I can't imagine the white inhabitants would be too happy with a rapidly expanding free black population, so the further importation of black people might be banned before slavery gets started.
Or a requirement they be sent home after their term, is it logistically possible?
 
The OTL Virginia colony could certainly fail sans tobacco. (I was using the OTL colonial names as shorthand for the regions in question, not as an assumption that the colonies would be exactly the same.). I don't know of another potential cash crop in Virginia which has anything like the potential of tobacco.

More generally, though, the non-economic factors for English colonisation of North America would still be around. (Religion, backing the wrong horse during the ECW, etc.). This would get some settlement in North America. So would the attraction of South Carolina, which in OTL was effectively set up as a spinoff from Caribbean colonisation anyway (Barbados). The secondary aspect of supplying the Carribean colonies would then still develop. Staple crops, naval supplies, even Southern furs (the deerskin trade). Nowhere near as profitable as Virginia was in OTL, but still likely some form of colonisation.
Sure, but it might not be English colonization. The Dutch and Swedes both made an effort to settle in the Middle Colonies OTL; they might be more successful if they were facing less of a population imbalance with the English settlers. Ditto some other colonial power (the Spanish probably make at least some continuing expansion up north, although it will never be a priority).

Of course, avoiding tobacco probably has enough butterflies anyway (since it was a thing long before the Europeans arrived) to change everything, but that's no fun.
 
Or a requirement they be sent home after their term, is it logistically possible?

Pretty much impossible because it would make them so expensive as to turn to slaves almost immediately because they would be immensely cheaper if that was a requirement.
 
Remembering the excellent radio show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, we would probably have ended up smoking potatoes.

But suppose Walter Raleigh had brought back marijuana instead?
 
I see a possibility that timber exports to the RN may be a significant industry. Perhaps by the mid/late 18th Century, port towns such as Norfolk, Wilmington, etc. could develop significant shipyards.

Some cotton plantations would support sailcloth weavers.
 
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