1620-1720
1619: Implementation of the first cannabis law in the New World
source…. https://www.hempshopper.com/es/hemp-history-ce/107-1619
Jamestown (or James Towne or Jamestowne) was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as “James Fort” on May 14, 1607 it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States.
In 1619, Jamestown colony law declared that all settlers were required to grow Indian hemp [1]. Its the New World’s first marijuana legislation.
Mandatory hemp cultivation laws were passed in Massachusetts in 1631 and in Connecticut in 1632. The use of hemp for rope and fabric was ubiquitous throughout the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States. George Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon as one of his three primary crops.
Refusing to grow hemp in America during the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries was against the law. In Virginia you could be jailed for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769. [2]
Cannabis was frequently used for barter and some colonies allowed farmers to pay taxes with hemp from 1631 until the early 1900s.[3]
1. Deitch, Robert (2003). Hemp – American History Revisited. New York City: Algora Publishing.
2. G. M. Herdon.Apr., 1963 Hemp in Colonial Virginia, Agricultural History Vol. 37, No. 2.
3. LA Times, August 12, 1981.
Research and text © Hempshopper Amsterdam.
1681: The first description of cannabis in English is presented to the Royal Society
source…. https://www.hempshopper.com/es/hemp-history-ce/106-1681
Robert Hooke (1635–1703) was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath who played an important role in the scientific revolution. He was a prominent member (Fellow) of the Royal Society in London.
Shortly after 1681 Hooke befriended Robert Knox, an English writer and sea captain in the service of the British East India Company. Knox became a close friend and collaborator of Robert Hooke, for whom he frequently brought back gifts from his travels. In return, Hooke took Knox to the local coffeehouses for chocolate and tobacco, then considered luxuries.[2]
On one occasion, Knox presented Hooke with samples of “a strange intoxicating herb like hemp” which he dubbed “Indian hemp” or “Bangue”; it is better known today as cannabis indica, a variety of hemp which was little known at the time in Europe. Hooke gave an address to the Society in December 1689 in which he provided what was the first detailed description of cannabis in English, commending its possible curative properties and noting that Knox “has so often experimented it himself, that there is no Cause of Fear, tho’ possibly there may be of Laughter”.[2]
1.Jardine, Lisa. 2005.The Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man who Measured London, p. 238. HarperCollins.
2. Bennet, Jim. London’s Leonardo. 2003. The Life and Work of Robert Hooke, pp. 205-206. Oxford University Press.
Research and text © Hempshopper Amsterdam.
1700 – 1800: Russia becomes the largest producer of hemp
from… https://www.hempshopper.com/es/hemp-history-ce/105-1700-1800
Czar Peter the Great on board of his yacht en route to the Pieter en Paul.At the end of the 17th century Czar Peter came to power in Russia, he was determined to modernise Russia, which was still an archaic, isolated backwater which had missed out on the European Renaissance.
The Dutch Republic was the leading European power, and Czar Peter tought of it as the perfect model for Russia. He made several trips to Western Europe to learn about culture and science.
In Amsterdam Czar Peter worked at the Dutch East India Company shipyard and helped build a ship. There he learned the importance of hemp in the shipbuilding proces. In 1698, the ship on which the tsar had worked, the Pieter en Paul was launched.[1] Next to shipbuilding the czar also learned about watch-making, making coffins, etchings, post-mortems, paper making and silk spinning.