The Victorian Age

When Columbus sailed to the new land that would become America the ships he traveled with had sails of hemp, the caulking and rigging were also products of hemp that brought him across the ocean.

The hemp plant became a plant of such use that in 1564 King Phillip of Spain would order it to be grown over his empire, his empire stretched from Argentina to Oregon.

This was not the only time there was a mandatory order to grow hemp crops in the Virginia colony in 1619 and was followed by the other colonies in America. To further impress the importance of hemp crops, on the settlers Europe begins paying hemp bounties.
Hemp was widely used for money in the American colonies by the year 1631as money by the settlers for goods.

One of the uses of hemp paper in early America was in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper.

Hemp was used in 1791 by President Washington to promote domestic industry; Thomas Jefferson would promote hemp as a necessity in America and call for farmers to grow hemp instead of tobacco in the tobacco region.

America was not the only place promoting the growth of hemp crops, in 1801 there were financial offers in Upper and Lower Canada and during the first half of the 1800’s hemp became a necessity to survive in Australia. During two famines hemp seed was eaten as protein and the leaves of the hemp plant were also eaten.